The mis-measure of physician performance

The Affordable Care Act directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to compare individual physicians using patient experience measures. This policy initiative will utilize the Clinician and Group Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CG-CAHPS) survey program. It will impact over 700,000 eligible physicians and will be tied to reimbursement and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Physician Compare reporting feature starting in 2015. We believe that the relevance of this framework to today's clinical environment is a critical issue to address before implementing this regulatory mandate. In this article we discuss our concerns about tying individual physician performance to CG-CAHPS scores, including: 1) intrinsic versus extrinsic approaches to assessing the patient experience, 2) measurement issues, and 3) unintended consequences. We also suggest an alternative pathway and opt-out mechanism to facilitate more rapid translation of service excellence into clinical practice.