Australia's doctors to be rated in website

Australian doctors will soon be rated for their quality of care in a new rate-my-doctor website mended by three health insurance companies.

Australia's health insurers NIB, HBF and Britain's health insurers Bupa said on Friday that they have joined forces to run a website that will publish prices, customer reviews and allow customers to book and pay for their appointments online.

The website will be an expanded version of NIB's provider directory Whitecoat, which currently covers general practitioners, dentists, physiotherapists, and other allied health professionals but not specialist.

NIB chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon told NewsCorp that the plan was eventually to publish the clinical outcomes of specialists from hospital data, adjusted for variables such as some doctors taking on more difficult cases.

He said although Australia had an excellent health system, consumers suffered from "information asymmetry" when it came to making decisions.

"In most markets the consumers have as much information as the sellers and they're able to make informed decisions," Fitzgibbon said.

"We know from around the world that consumers like to hear what other patients have said about their experience with a doctor or hospital."

However, he said customer reviews would be censored if they commented on whether particular operations were appropriate, because patients were not qualified to make that assessment.

Fitzgibbon said the website was also another way to help existing health fund clients get over the shock of high medical bills who eventually blamed insurance policies for not absorbing the high cost. Endit