Between 17 percent and 61 percent of physicians would fall into a different cost category depending on the methods used, according to a RAND news release on the study. Insurers use these cost categories, along with quality scores, to assign physicians to performance tiers.
RAND examined information from four commercial health insurers in Massachusetts that together enroll 1.1 million adults, according to the release. The results showed that a physician’s cost category could vary from one insurer to another based on the methods used.
The study suggests insurance companies should increase their transparency about their physician profiling methods, Ateev Mehrotra, MD, a RAND researcher and professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said in the release.
Read RAND Corp.’s news release about the study on physician cost profiling.
