MANAGED CARE March 2002. ©MediMedia USA
Ready or not, more people are turning to the Internet to do everything from researching health conditions and medications to enrolling for benefits. Unfortunately, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, many health Web sites contain incomplete and even possibly inaccurate data. The report was conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. The authors urge health care Web sites to improve the quality of the information they convey, saying that it has the potential to be valuable to consumers.
Hewitt Associates found that when Internet enrollment was offered last year, 70 percent of employees enrolled online — up from 36 percent in 1999 and 51 percent in 2000. Hewitt's findings are based on data collected from 85 large employers, covering about 6.5 million employees and their dependents.
SOURCE: HEWITT ASSOCIATES