Subject: AMA Endorses Releasing Rates Of Doctors' Success 
Date: Published: 6/26/92 (62 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Health:
    AMA Endorses
    Releasing Rates
    Of Doctors' Success
    ----
    By Nelson D. Schwartz
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    CHICAGO -- The American Medical Association's governing
 body endorsed the release of information to the public about
 individual doctors' success rates -- but only in limited,
 carefully selected pilot studies.
    The resolution calls on the AMA to develop guidelines for
 collecting and disclosing the data on doctors.  And it
 reaffirms members' opposition to releasing such data outside
 of these studies.
    The new program would be implemented by state health
 departments, with input from local doctors and medical
 associations.
    At its annual convention, the AMA also backed a proposal
 for doctors, hospitals, labs and others to post their prices
 so that patients can compare costs more easily and benefit
 from increased competition.  Although the AMA's decision is
 not binding, the group will encourage healthcare providers to
 follow the new policy.
    The move by the AMA's 434-member House of Delegates
 regarding doctors' success rates represents a small step
 toward greater access to doctors' records by patients.  But it
 also comes amid claims by physicians that the data could be
 misinterpreted.
    An AMA report on the subject warned that "the release of
 raw surgical mortality rates ...may result in
 inappropriate and unfair inferences being drawn by patients
 and purchasers of health care about the `quality' of a
 specific physician."
    Comparing the performance of doctors is difficult, says
 Dan Maier, a spokesman for the AMA.  "A physician who only
 treats patients with AIDS is going to have a mortality rate
 of 100% because it is a fatal disease," he says.
    The debate over how to handle this data echoes arguments
 over the release of statistics on hospitals by the Department
 of Health and Human Services.  The data have shown wide
 variations in mortality rates among different hospitals.
    On another confidentiality-related issue, the AMA called
 on the federal government to tighten access to the National
 Practitioner Data Bank, a computerized record of malpractice
 suits against doctors.  The data bank, created in 1986 by
 Congress, was originally designed for use by state licensing
 boards.  But physicians complain they are pressured by
 hospitals and others to turn over confidential material from
 the data bank.  The resolution warned that if security is not
 improved, the AMA will call on the government to abolish the
 data bank.

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