I must applaud Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee for delaying the release of their doctor info. In doing research for the dCard standard, I personally witnessed the large discrepancies between different sources for physician information - BCBS of TN being one of them. I also applaud the doctors for paying attention to their profiles and bringing errors to light.

The article in the Tennessean today has a great quote. “The insurer’s chief medical officer, Dr. David Moroney, said the delay was aimed at fixing the mistakes. “Because of the sensitivities around this (issue), we’re very intentionally making this a very open process where we’re very actively seeking input and involvement of physicians and consumers,” Moroney said.”

I would like to make my point that I believe what is most important on the consumer directed health front is providing accurate information to all health care consumers. Not just those insured by various large insurance providers.

Also how often are we going to ask physicians to take a look at their profiles and make corrections to the mistakes?

Now I admit that I understand the incentive to keep your data private, or to only share it with your clients, however we are then only making strides on small fronts… helping those individuals that have the benefit of an insurance plan in the first place.

I propose that all those putting effort toward gathering physician data first and foremost join others on the standardization front. I would like to note that we are not only dealing with inaccurate information for hundreds of thousands of physicians, but also inconsistencies in the information that is being collected. Few sources record gender, others record age, while educational institution and graduation year appear on most.

If you have any interest in learning more about the dCard and what other organizations (beside change:healthcare) are participating in this effort to standardize and share physician information check out the Full dCard Release.

Or contact us at info@changehealthcare.com.