Enhancing Health System Transparency through Meaningful Health Data Releases

A key component of a transparent health care system is providing access to physician payment data because it can reveal important trends in how we pay doctors differently, and likewise reveal glaring evidence of the faults in our payment system: inconsistent pricing of services, overuse of expensive tests and procedures; and extreme variations in health care spending. An April 2014 release of millions of lines of Medicare Part B physician payment data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was just one of many recent data releases designed to enhance transparency.

On December 1, the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform brought together providers, payers and consumer advocates to discuss the value of current health care datasets, and explore how future releases can be used to drive health system improvements via more transparency.

Download the Commonwealth Fund issue brief by Kavita Patel, “

Making Sense of the Medicare Physician Payment Data Release: Uses, Limitations, and Potential

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Download “Online Health Care Data Sources.”

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