NEW YORK, NY October 30, 2007 —One of the nation’s largest health insurers has agreed to change how it helps patients select a doctor. WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.

Health insurers increasingly have been grading doctors. If you’re trying to choose which physician to see, and you open up the directory provided by your health plan, you might find a series of scores and go for one marked “excellent.”

An investigation by the Attorney General’s office suggested that the those scores might have less to do with how effectively doctors provide care and more to do with how much they cost the insurer -- in terms of which drugs they prescribe, which tests they order, and how often they make referrals to costly specialists.

In a settlement announced Monday, insurance giant Cigna agreed to provide customers with all the information that goes into those grades, so that, say, a diabetic could see how well a prospective doctor does at managing diabetes, not just how much cost-effectively that doctor is providing service, according to Cigna.

The Attorney General’s office is in discussion with other major insurers and hopes this agreement will serve as a template. For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.