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Abstract

Customers searching for consumer goods (e.g., home appliances, electronics) can make use of an abundance of information about the quality of available options (e.g., through Consumer Reports, Consumersearch.com). In contrast, consumers seeking a health care provider have very limited information about the quality of their options. For years, this lack of information was blamed on peculiarities of the health care sector and regarded by policy makers and others as another example of health care exceptionalism. In the past two decades, however, government and private organizations have made conscious efforts to increase quality transparency in the health care sector to enable consumers to make more informed decisions. Examples include the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website Hospital Compare, CalHospitalCompare.org, the ProPublica Surgeon Scorecard, and the Compare Hospitals site by the Leapfrog Group—all of which offer hospital outcome data—as well as websites by Healthgrades, Consumer Reports, Yelp, and U.S. News & World Report, which offer hospital ratings and rankings.

Citation

Saghafian, Soroush, and Wallace J. Hopp. "The Role of Quality Transparency in Health Care: Challenges and Potential Solutions." National Academy of Medicine, November 18, 2019.