Report Summarizes Managed Care Study Findings from University of California

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Fresh data on Managed Care are presented in a new report. According to news originating from Los Angeles, California, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "In 2008, HealthPlus of Michigan introduced an online primary care provider (PCP) report that displays clinical quality data and patients' ratings of their experiences with PCPs on a public web site. Design and Procedure: A randomized encouragement design was used to examine the impact of HealthPlus's online physician-quality report on new plan members' choice of a PCP."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of California, "This study evaluated the impact of an added encouragement to utilize the report by randomizing half of new adult plan members in 2009-2010, who were required to select a PCP (N = 1347), to receive a 1-page letter signed by the health plan's chief medical officer emphasizing the importance of the online report and a brief phone call reminder. We examined the use of the report and the quality of PCPs selected by participants. Twenty-eight percent of participants in the encouragement condition versus 22% in the control condition looked at the online report before selecting a PCP. Although participants in the encouragement condition selected PCPs with higher patient experience ratings than did control participants, this difference was not explained by their increased likelihood of accessing the online report. Health plan members can be encouraged successfully to access physician-level quality data using an inexpensive letter and automated phone call."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "However, a large proportion of missing data in HealthPlus's online report may have limited the influence of the physician-quality report on consumer choice."

For more information on this research see: A Field Experiment on the Impact of Physician-level Performance Data on Consumers' Choice of Physician. Medical Care, 2012;50(11):S65-S73. Medical Care can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 530 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106-3621, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Medical Care - journals.lww.com/lww-medicalcare/pages/default.aspx)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from S.C. Martino, University of California, Dept. of Med, Los Angeles, CA 90024, United States (see also Managed Care).

Keywords for this news article include: California, Los Angeles, Managed Care, United States, North and Central America

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