Members to Use Survey to Rate Physician Experiences

Blue Cross of California (Blue Cross) today announced the launch of the Zagat Survey tool, a new online survey tool that will allow consumers to share their physician experiences with others in the Los Angeles market.

The survey tool is now available to members enrolled in the company’s Lumenos consumer driven health plans and will be available to all members the Los Angeles area at the end of the first quarter of 2008. Blue Cross will continue to progressively introduce this tool across all of California.

“Zagat is widely known and trusted for its ability to help people share and learn from other consumer experiences. By working with them we are able to create a trusted resource for consumers and actively engage consumers in sharing and using that information,” said Brian A. Sassi, president of Blue Cross of California. “Consumer experience information, such as that enabled by the Zagat Survey tool, complements our other tools and resources that make clinical quality and cost transparent for consumers.”

Through its relationship with Zagat, Blue Cross is helping address an unmet need for peer-to-peer interaction among health care consumers. The new survey tool will provide a vehicle for members to review and evaluate physicians based on a set of distinct criteria, creating a trusted resource to support informed member decision-making.

“The rating of physicians on such things as access to the office, friendliness of staff, confidence in the doctor and other such non-medical criteria via this new system is essentially an electronic version of the more traditional “word of mouth” network in which friends refer friends to their “favorite” doctors. Patient satisfaction and feedback are extremely important for a successful practice”, said Dr. Hector Flores, medical director of Family Care Specialists Medical Group in Los Angeles.

Consumers will be able to review their doctor visits based on:

• Trust
• Communication
• Availability
• Environment

In addition, the survey will feature a comments section, allowing members to expand on their ratings. These categories are solely designed to reflect a consumer’s experience with a physician and not to reflect the quality of care received. The survey and results will be available free of charge to members via their health plan’s web site.

For each network physician, the online entry will display contact information, ratings on a 30-point scale for each of the four categories, and the percentage of members who recommend that physician. The most recent comments will be displayed first, and members will have the option to rate the usefulness of comments and report suspicious comments.

“Blue Cross of California is committed to providing its members with the data and tools necessary to help them take a more active role in their health care decision making,” said Sassi. “With this tool, Blue Cross is helping to give consumers the ability to make informed decisions about selecting doctors based on other people’s experiences, in a format that is familiar, easy to understand and meaningful.”

This article can be found at Anthem Blue Cross of California, Press Releases.

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