Wellpoint insurance announced today it will begin a rating service of providers, by
consumers, in metropolitan Los Angeles, Connecticut, Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. From the Indy Star:
The Indianapolis-based health benefits giant is teaming with Zagat Survey — famous for its restaurant guidebooks — on the new program, which allows patients to evaluate their physicians using the some methods used to rate eateries and travel destinations.The difference is in the categories: trust, the doctor’s ability to communicate with the patient, office environment and availability (how quick the office responds to a request from the patient, for example).The survey tool is now available to members in these cities enrolled in the company’s Blue Lumenos consumer-driven health plans. In October, when it announced the partnership, WellPoint said it planned to make the program nationwide within two to three years.”Through our partnership with Zagat, WellPoint is helping address an unmet need for peer-to-peer interaction among health care consumers,” said Jason Gorevic, WellPoint’s chief marketing and product officer, in a statement. “Zagat is widely known and trusted for its ability to help people share and learn from other consumer experiences.”WellPoint provides health benefits to about 35 million people.
What sounds like a good idea and nice thing for Wellpoint to do may hide another agenda, in the Blogmeister’s opinion. The trend among insurance companies these days is to base payment on “quality” (an elusive set of criteria THEY determine). Not that the insurance companies pay “high quality” Docs more, or even the full price of their charges, but use the system to pay “underperforming” providers less. It is hoped this will ultimately not be the case with Wellpoint.
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