Overall results from the survey. (1 – strongly disagree; 2—disagree; 3—neutral; 4—agree; 5—strongly agree).
| Survey Questions | Average Answer |
|---|---|
| The intentions of the CMS to make our healthcare system more transparent, affordable, and accountable were fulfilled by the release of this information. | 2.2 |
| The CMS data will help patients decide which spine surgeon is best for them. | 1.7 |
| The availability of this data will help patients identify surgeons with inappropriate indications. | 2.0 |
| Ultimately, the release of this data is beneficial for patients. | 2.2 |
| Articles in the press presented this data in an accurate way. | 2.0 |
| The CMS data accurately portrays the distribution of cases I typically perform throughout my practice (including non-Medicare patients). | 2.1 |
| The data specific to spine fusion and rates of cases performed accurately portrays my practice. | 2.1 |
| It is important for patients to know the number of spine fusions I perform on Medicare patients each year. | 2.3 |
| It is important for patients to know the percent of Medicare patients I end up performing a spinal fusion on. | 2.1 |
| The data would be more beneficial if patients knew the percentage of Medicare patients that make up my practice. | 3.3 |
| The Spinal Fusion database will help authorities identify and investigate surgeons with inappropriate indications. | 2.5 |
| Because these databases only include Medicare patients, people may be mislead into believing a surgeon is inexperienced if they do not treat many Medicare patients. | 3.7 |
| This data portrays physicians who treat a high percentage of Medicare patients in a negative way. | 3.8 |
| The release of this data will discourage me from treating Medicare patients in the future. | 3.3 |
| Despite the limited compensation I ultimately receive from treating Medicare patients, I feel a moral obligation to treat these patients. | 4.0 |
| If I treat more Medicare patients, it is likely I will be investigated by CMS. | 3.3 |
| I have stopped treating Medicare patients because of the release of this data. | 1.9 |
| I will be more conservative in surgical indications for Medicare patients in the future because of this data release. | 2.5 |
| These reports more accurately portrayed Spine Surgeons than physicians in other fields. | 2.2 |
| The release of this data is a violation of my privacy. | 3.2 |
| This information will influence medical students when choosing specialties. | 2.8 |
| Publication of individual surgeon complication rates would be more valuable to patients than billing data. | 3.0 |
| Physicians at tertiary referral centers will be viewed as more aggressive in performing fusion and complex fusion without information such as comorbidities and percent of cases that are referred revisions. | 4.1 |
| I am in favor of more transparency in quality and in management of healthcare costs. | 4.1 |
| The CMS data is driven by the demographics of the respective patient populations of each surgeon. | 3.7 |
| Without data on long-term cost of care, the CMS data does not represent spine surgery accurately because there are high initial expenditures. | 4.0 |
| Because of the complexity of this database, patients are less likely to use this data, and it is more likely to be used by special interest groups and malpractice attorneys. | 4.2 |