How do commercial insurers evaluate physician quality?

Often, this is done with claims-based measures and beneficiary surveys. Today, I take a more detailed look at the UnitedHealth Premium physician designation program. The program evalutates physicians based on established quality measures and–for those who meet the minimum quality requirement–a measure of efficiency (i.e., low cost). A more detailed description is available here. Without…

How does UnitedHealth Evaluate Physician Performance?

The UnitedHealth Premium Physician Designation Program assesses the quality and efficiency of physicians’ practice patterns. UnitedHealth uses Quality of care is measured using measures from the NQF and NCQA.  Cost efficiency (i.e., being low cost) is measured using the Symmetry ETG and PEG episodes. The information generated by this program is used to i) give…