Table 1.
List of attributes used in our analysis based on the data collected (continued in Table 2)
| Category | Attribute | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality Indicators | Referral Frequency | Normalized number of referrals. | CMS |
| Castle Connolly Award | Whether or not the provider is recognized by Castle Connolly as a distinguished provider. | Vitals.com | |
| General Information | Gender | Male or female, as specified in the CMS data. | CMS |
| Accepting New Patients | Whether or not the provider is accepting new patients. | Vitals.com and Healthgrades.com | |
| Specialties | A set of attributes, one for each specialty, e.g., cardiologist. | CMS | |
| Census Division | One of the nine regional divisions as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, based on the provider’s location [36]. | CMS | |
| Number of Organization Members | Number of organization members, e.g., 1 for a private practice with 1 provider. | CMS | |
| Languages | A set of attributes that represent languages spoken by the provider. | Healthgrades.com | |
| Number of Spoken Languages | The number of spoken languages spoken by the provider. | Healthgrades.com | |
| Accepts Medicare Insurance | Whether or not the provider accepts Medicare assignments. | CMS | |
| PQRS | Whether or not the provider participates in the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS)[13]. | CMS | |
| EHR | Whether or not the provider uses an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. | CMS | |
| eRx | Whether or not the provider uses electronic prescriptions. | CMS |