Several business coalitions and health care organizations used the first HEDIS measures in 1991. Using HEDIS as a base, some employers have begun to distribute to their employees educational materials that include outcome measures. 1.) 2.) Consumers We Interviewed Use Information Comparing Quality in Health Care Decision-Making

Many of the employers and individual consumers of health care we talked with are increasingly using information that compares the quality of care furnished by health care providers or health plans to make purchasing decisions and to encourage providers and plans to improve the quality of their care. They want standardized information that allows them to compare providers and plans. While employers themselves have initiated efforts to cooperate with one another, few we interviewed are making complete health care data available to assist individual consumers in making purchasing decisions. Scope and Methodology

To obtain information on how consumers use data comparing the quality of health care providers or health plans and what information they want when making health care purchasing decisions, we interviewed both employers and individual consumers.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on health care quality issues, focusing on: (1) how consumers use health care performance reports that contain comparative data on the quality of health care providers; and (2) what information consumers consider most important.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) employers and individuals use information that measures and compares the quality of health care furnished by providers and health plans when making purchasing decisions; (2) consumers want performance reporting efforts to continue and are requesting that more data be made publicly available; (3) consumers want standardized and comparable health care information to assess health care providers' or health plans' performance; (4) many employers get health care performance data through business coalitions, consultants, and their own data collection efforts; and (5) although employers have begun cooperating with one another to enhance their purchasing decisions, few employers make health care data available to their employees.