Sale of doctor database is put on hold by state

Facing passionate objections from doctors, the state has backed off from its plan -- at least for now -- to sell data to researchers, insurers, and companies that could be used to analyze individual physicians' track records.

The Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, which collects detailed information on every hospital stay in Massachusetts, currently sells this data, but the agency scrambles each doctor's identification number so purchases can analyze hospital trends only.

In January, as part of Governor Mitt Romney's promise to make healthcare more transparent and responding to pressure from companies that want to use this data to develop physician report cards, the agency proposed new regulations to identify doctors. The data could be used to try to identify the experience, complication, and mortality rates of individual physicians.

The Massachusetts Medical Society called for a public hearing, saying the data are prone to errors, and five other hospitals and doctors' groups filed objections. Dr. David Torchiana, head of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, met with Health and Human Services Secretary Timothy Murphy.

''We are still very interested in making these data available, but how, to whom, and when remains undecided," said Amy Lischko, assistant commissioner of healthcare finance and policy.

Michael Moore turns his attention to healthcare

Love him or hate him, Michael Moore is planning his next movie, and it will tackle a subject dear to Boston's heart: healthcare. In a letter posted last month on his website, www.michaelmoore.com, Moore, whose opinionated movies go after big companies and government, appeals to readers to send him their ''health care horror stories" for a documentary he's planning about the industry.

''Have you ever found yourself getting ready to file for bankruptcy because you can't pay your kid's hospital bill, and then you say to yourself, 'Boy, I sure would like to be in Michael Moore's health care movie!' "? Moore continues that ''all we need now is to put a few of you in the movie and let the world see what the greatest country ever in the history of the universe does to its own people simply because they have the misfortune of getting sick."

Moore became famous in 1989 with his muckraking film about General Motors called ''Roger & Me," while his most recent movie, ''Fahrenheit 9/11" takes on the Bush administration. He does not say on his website when he plans to finish his healthcare movie or what he plans to call it.

Positive stories sought, too

If you have a positive story about a Massachusetts doctor, nurse, or caregiver, someone wants those, too.

The nonprofit Kenneth B. Schwartz Center is seeking nominations for its 8th annual Compassionate Caregiver Award. Nominees must be Massachusetts employees who work directly with patients and ''display extraordinary compassion." The nomination deadline is April 10. Nomination forms can be submitted online at www.theschwartzcenter.org.The award is given each year in honor of Kenneth B. Schwartz, a healthcare attorney who died in 1995 from lung cancer.

The mission of the center, located at Massachusetts General Hospital, is to strengthen relationships between patients and caregivers. AstraZeneca, the giant pharmaceutical company, pays for the program, including a $5,000 award for the winner and $1,000 awards for four finalists.

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