MCOs, drug manufacturers have lots of PR work to do

MANAGED CARE August 2004. ©MediMedia USA

Since 1997, Harris Interactive has asked the public to rank various industries by whether it feels they're doing a good job in serving customers. The latest results, from a telephone survey of 979 adults taken between April 8 and 15, includes some disheartening numbers for both managed care companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers, but especially pharmaceutical companies.

Managed care companies have never earned extremely high ratings in the poll, although they did a lot better in 1997 than they're doing now. On the other hand, 79 percent of adults felt that pharmaceutical companies were doing a good job serving customers in 1997. That number is now down to 44 percent.

SOURCE: HARRIS INTERACTIVE