MANAGED CARE March 2004. ©MediMedia USA
Consumers have yet to see much in the way of quality ratings of health plans, physicians, and hospitals, according to a new survey of 106 health care professionals who signed up to attend the World Health Care Congress on Jan. 26 and 27.
Harris Interactive warns of the limitations of a survey of a heterogeneous group of health care executives. "They are not representative of any specific group except themselves. Nevertheless, we found their replies intriguing and decided to share them with a wider audience."
Included in those intriguing replies were opinions about what percent of consumers see information that rates the quality of health care organizations and, further, what percent actually change doctors, hospitals, or health plans based on the information they receive.
"Consumers are miserably armed right now to make judgments on quality," Humphrey Taylor, chairman of Harris Interactive's Harris Poll, told attendees at the World Health Care Congress.
SOURCE: HARRIS INTERACTIVE