Health Care Consumers Crowded Out Of Medical Information Board

By CAROL GENTRY The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jun 20, 2007

CLEARWATER - A state council meeting here to discuss how to make medical information accessible and useful to the public is dominated by the same industries that have kept the data secret for so long.

Doctors and representatives of the hospital and insurance industries take up most of the seats on the Consumer Health Information and Policy Advisory Council and its work groups. Nearly all the rest are filled with state employees and contractors.

Business interests get one slot, filled by Randy Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Retail Federation. One goes to a "consumer," but the person filling it is James Bracher, a former Office of Insurance Regulation executive who now works for that office on contract. He oversees Universal Health Care Insurance Co. of St. Petersburg, which is under state supervision.

The Legislature made the allocation of slots for health industries a part of the 2004 Affordable Health Care Act, which set up the council to advise state workers on creation of Web sites with health information.

Walter Dartland, a long-time Florida consumer advocate, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he sees such behavior all the time.

"They're going to go to the most obvious interest groups that are lobbying to get on," he said.

Dartland, chair of Florida Common Cause and president of the Consumer Federation of the Southeast, said he had a hard time getting into the room this year when lawmakers took up public-interest bills and an even harder time getting a chance to speak.

"I guess maybe they feel we don't count," he said.

Several members of the council seemed taken aback Tuesday when a reporter asked about the shortage of consumer voices on the council or workgroups.

"We're all consumers of health care," said Andy Agwunobi, a physician and Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration. When a question about patients' needs comes up, he said, "we all take off our state hats and act like consumers, and we have physicians acting on behalf of consumers. I think it's set up well."

Besides, he said, "if we feel we don't have enough consumer input, we'll create surveys and invite consumers to focus groups."

Agwunobi, who will have the duty of appointing most of the members as vacancies occur, said he will try to increase the number of consumer members on the council and workgroups. If consumers are interested, he said, they can get on the e-mail advisory list, call the staff or fill out an application. Information is at ahca.myflorida.com/SCHS/chis.shtml.

The mission of the council is to advise the Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis, the AHCA office that collects and posts data on hospitals, health plans, drug prices and more on the Internet. It operates FloridaHealthStat .com, MyFloridaRx.com and FloridaCompareCare.gov.

The council's planning meeting is devoted to finding out how to present the information that the public needs in order to "shop" for health care. Members concede the sites need to be easier to use.

Reporter Carol Gentry can be reached at (813) 259-7624 or cgentry@tampatrib.com.