The limits of big data and transparency

Earlier this month, the release of massive amounts of Medicare payment information jolted healthcare and spurred countless articles analyzing the payments being made to physicians.

While some hailed the data dump as a victory for transparency, others worried about undeserved backlash, particularly against doctors who had extremely high levels of payments when the data doesn’t differentiate between those who may be billing for an entire practice or those whose payments may largely go to high overhead costs.

Writing for The New Yorker, Lisa Rosenbaum looks at the challenges of releasing this type of complex data to the public. “There is nothing wrong with trying to improve the value of healthcare. But better value will depend as much on doing more of what’s good as it will upon doing less of what’s bad. So much of that good isn’t captured by these numbers,” she writes.

You can read the full article at the link below: