Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Rate Your Doctor

In a well-developed consumer market, would-be customers can peruse information about products and services through buyer's guides, magazines, and more recently, web sites. Health care could certainly benefit from some increased transparency. In his book The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care, Dr. David Gratzer relates how it was easier for him to find information about hotels than hospitals.

Yesterday I logged into Angie's List, a consumer referral service that I have used to find various contractors for projects about the house. The idea is simple: When customers share their experiences with each other, the bad apples get exposed.

Angie's List has now started applying its business model to health care. The Indianapolis Star called it "the latest sign that consumerism is becoming a major force in the health-care industry."

The service joins Health Grades, RateMDs, and Revolution Health in the power-to-the-people market.