 The quality of care delivered in physicians offices is suboptimal. Underuse of proven, potentially life-saving medications, such as anti-hypertensive agents and statins for lipid-lowering, is unfortunately no exception. Data from more than 70 million people collected for the 2005 HEDIS Report Card show that fewer than half of those patients at high risk for myocardial infarction have adequately controlled lipids and fewer than 70 of patients with hypertension have blood pressure controlled; annually this suboptimal treatment accounts for more than 10,000 avoidable deaths, 333 million in avoidable hospital costs, 27.2 million sick days and 4.5 billion in lost productivity. 