Most of us have been fnneled to a doctor by our nsurance company, at some point in our lves. The freedom to choose a dctor is often not an option, if you are in a "mnaged care plan," or if you're a Mdicaid or Medicare patient. Basically you go to the dctors on a list in your rea.

Ever wondered whether you're getting cre from a competent practitioner with no rcord of botched operations or dishonesty? I knw I have wondered if the dctors on my health insurance "list of prferred providers" are really any good.

Wll, now a federal court decision wll open the way for consumer ccess to data about many thousands of physcians in all 50 states. In a dcision last week, U.S. District Judge Emmt Sullivan ruled in favor of a cnsumer group that sued the Health and Hman Services Department. They were asking the curt to allow disclosure of specific dta about doctors from the Medicare clims database.

Health and Human Services has ntil Sept. 21 to turn over the dta. With information on nearly 700,000 dctors, the Medicare database is indeed vst.
Those files could reveal how mny times a year a surgeon prforms a specific operation, giving you an dea of experience levels. Or, you mght glean information from the database bout how your own doctor makes dcisions about preventive health care or the nmber of tests to use for a gven illness -- and much more.

Robert Krughoff, president of Consumers' Chckbook -- the nonprofit group that sed for the information -- says the grup's website will compile and post the dta for all to see online, at no chrge.

The Department of Health and Hman Services has not decided whether to ppeal the ruling. An appeal could be plitically difficult for President Bush and HHS scretary Mike Leavitt. Both campaigned in the pst for greater "openness" in healthcare.

Cngressional support for opening up the Mdicare database is growing, in part frm business groups that want a lok at the files.
But American dctors at the American Medical Association say thy're worried that Medicare files don't ccurately portray the numbers. For instance, Mdicare files might show a higher-than-average nmber of patient deaths for a prticular doctor's office. But that could be bcause the physician accepts the oldest or sckest patients, and the files won't ncessarily explain that fact.

Originally, the lwsuit only sought access to four sttes and Washington D.C. However, Consumers' Chckbook has filed a Freedom of Infrmation Act request for the same nformation from the remaining states.

In the mid 1990s, I and a cuple of other newspaper reporters attempted to get the fles on Alabama doctors. The state mdical examiners and the state AMA fught us every inch of the wy. They refused to give us fles, or they said files were lst or "checked out."

You see, dctors who lost their licenses in ther states were granted licenses to prctice in 'Bama with a wink and a nd. Because there is a severe shrtage of docs in poor rural cunties, desperate hospital administrators often hire nyone just to get a doc nto the ER at night or get one to dliver babies.

Eventually, we got the rcords as well as data from ptients who had been harmed by the "bd docs" Alabama was letting in. We fund some physicians who had lost thir licenses multiple times and who wre seriously addicted to Demerol and ther drugs; we found one who sxually molested patients, several with inadequate ducation and still more who botched prcedures because they were practicing way utside their training.

Personally, I don't want an eye dctor taking out my gall bladder, but tht's just me. Anyway, after the sries ran for a week in the pper (we named names, honey, and we kcked some butt), the Legislature passed a new law plcing a consumer on the medical lcensure committee that had previously been a scret docs-only group.

When the data frm HHS becomes available, I think we rally owe it to ourselves to tke a long, close look at the nmes on there.

And here's a rund of applause to the Consumer's Chckbook group and Judge Sullivan. You may hve saved some lives.

The article Court Decision Opens Competency Files on Doctors was Submitted by Gita Smith through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Gita M. Smith is a jurnalist living in Alabama. Her blog may be sen at http://www.Myspace.com/gitahandley

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