This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In their discussion of disclosure of HEDIS quality scores, Dr McCormick and colleagues¹ appear to assume that HMOs can influence the quality of medical care. I believe that there is insufficient evidence for this assumption.

The HEDIS measures were initially designed to compare the cost and quality of health care delivered to capitated populations by a homogeneous group of tightly managed staff and group model HMOs. It is questionable whether current health plans—which typically involve large, overlapping heterogeneous networks of physicians, hospitals, and clinics—can influence the quality of care delivered to populations they serve. McCormick et al imply that HMOs deliver medical care, when in fact they act more as insurance companies. It is physicians, not health plans, who provide care for patients.

Physicians are influenced by many factors other than health plan guidelines. Although the presence or lack of insurance may influence a patient's ability to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Association of Managed Care Market Share and Health Expenditures for Fee-for-Service Medicare Patients

JAMA. ;281():432-437.
FULL TEXT  

The Economist's Model of Physician Behavior

JAMA. ;281():462-465.
FULL TEXT  

Relationship Between Low Quality-of-Care Scores and HMOs' Subsequent Public Disclosure of Quality-of-Care Scores
, , , , and
JAMA. ;288():1484-1490.
FULL TEXT  

Public Disclosure of Health Plan Quality of Care

JAMA. ;289():845-845.
FULL TEXT  

Public Disclosure of Health Plan Quality of Care

JAMA. ;289():845-846.
FULL TEXT  

Public Disclosure of Health Plan Quality of Care

JAMA. ;289():846-847.
FULL TEXT  

Public Disclosure of Health Plan Quality of Care
, , , , and
JAMA. ;289():847-847.
FULL TEXT