Here’s a classical example of a federal regulatory agency holding fast to two opposing ideas at the same time. I wonder what it means?

Last week the Department of Health and Human Services posted an interesting notice announcing a new program that recognizes 14 (presumably) forward-thinking health care coalitions of providers, employers, insurers and consumers, which it refers to Chartered Value Exchanges, or CVEs. (Who comes up with these names?!)  HHS promises that, by summer of 2008, it will provide "access
to information from Medicare that gauges the quality of care
physicians provide to patients." This "physician-group level
performance information…can be combined with similar private-sector
data to produce a comprehensive consumer guide on the quality of care
available" in each community. Cool! Sign me up!

Only one problem. This program seemingly contradicts HHS’s position, taken at the urging of the AMA,
in its appeal of a lawsuit finding that HHS should release data on
Medicare physician performance to the consumer advocacy group Consumers’ Checkbook.
In that case, HHS used the pretzel logic that, even though they are
Medicare vendors being paid with public dollars and that the same principle
applies to no other health care group, doctors have a right to privacy.

So here’s a question. Anybody got a clue what’s going on here? What’s HHS goal? Why are they fighting so hard to hold back the data on one front and so willing to make it publicly available on another?