It took a while, but there's consensus among doctors, health insurers, and the business community on the best way to measure physicians' performance and communicate the results to patients. The "Patient Charter," as it's known, creates a national set of principles to guide proper measuring and reporting.

According to the AAFP, the medical community was successful in negotiating the biggest hurdle: allowing physicians to review their information for errors before it's shared with the public. "Importantly, this charter calls for the consistent use of a defined set of performance measures for family medicine and primary care," says family physician Douglas E. Henley, executive vice president of the AAFP, which joined with the AMA and the ACP in endorsing the new charter.