HMSA asks its
patients about
doctors

Physicians participating
in HMSA may be awarded up to
$10,000 by the medical insurer

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii Medical Service Association is surveying patients to determine whether they're getting quality care and services from their doctors.

Physicians participating in HMSA may be awarded up to $10,000 by the medical insurer, based partly on what their patients say about them.

About $2 million to $4 million has been budgeted for the rewards program, said HMSA spokesman Fred Fortin.

He said about 190,000 surveys were sent to patients and about 100,000 have been returned. The confidential responses will be used for general information and education programs, he said.

"In a sense," he said, "it is the wave of the future to solicit consumer members' input about the services they receive, to get feedback and try to improve services based on that feedback."

The voluntary award program, still being finalized, will be based on various measures of physician services, including customer satisfaction, Fortin said.

Attorney Richard Miller, representing the Hawaii Coalition for Health, said the awards criteria aren't specific, and the group is concerned about an incentive for doctors "to do something which may or may not be good medicine."

He pointed out that the coalition succeeded in eliminating a physician bonus program during negotiations over HMSA's contract last year. "We did feel it creates a conflict of interest."

Miller said HMSA "should be congratulated for trying to do something to encourage more efficient medicine, but it's got to be made more clear that the efficiency is not going to work against the patients' interest."

Fortin said the rewards program may mean more services and appropriate care, not less. "Often, when you do more at the front end, it turns out in the overall picture that it may cost less."

He said Dr. Richard S. Chung, HMSA's medical director, consulted at least 50 physicians in developing the program.