Freedom vs. Security

Brian Klepper of the Health Care Blog has posted a fine piece on a recent U.S. Appeals Court decision to overturn that made by a lower court, which would have forced public release of Medicare physician data.

There's lots of goods stuff in this post surrounding the privacy interests of physicians vs. the public benefit of increased cost and pricing transparency. Klepper concludes:

“My guess is that the Appeals Court’s decision for physician privacy at the expense of patient knowledge will be extremely short-lived, and end up being nothing but a minor negative footnote in the steady march toward better health care in America. Certainly, there is good evidence that some progressive health plans increasingly understand the value of using their data to drive better patient decisions, and to make physicians aware of their own performance.”

Although Klepper's conclusion is entirely what I would hope for, I'm much more skeptical. I'm inclined to believe that many more rulings of individual privacy over the public good will likely be made in the near term. And what will come of this? More of the same. But only time will tell…