On December 14, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it added a new feature to its Physician Compare website profile pages: Physicians' 2016 performance data is now displayed as star ratings. In addition to the star ratings, CMS also added new quality measures that are intended to assist patients in comparing quality data on doctors.
The Physician Compare website's creation was a requirement of the Affordable Care Act. CMS has been phasing in new features to help patients make informed choices about Medicare physicians. While the profile pages are intended for patients and caregivers, the downloadable database available at data.medicare.gov is a resource for clinicians and group representatives as well as third-party data users. CMS anticipates making 2016 performance information publicly available for download in late spring or early summer 2018.
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