Having an integrated healthcare system that provides adequate interaction and integration to ensure the continuum of healthcare services is of the utmost importance. It is important that through strategic planning this continuum of services is met.

Consumer “report card” development and distribution has become a high priority for managed care                      organizations because:

a.       Measurements of performance have now become well-established, standardized, and accepted by all parties

b.      Purchasers are pressuring for disclosure of meaningful performance information for use by buyers and consumers

c.       Consumers in healthcare are now well-organized, and managed care organizations feel a need to satisfy them

d.      Physicians are increasingly encouraging their patients to evaluate managed care organizations based on these report cars.

1.       Answer (a) makes a statement but does not answer the question.  It’s true that measures are well-established but it doesn’t necessarily mean that outcomes will be reported.  It’s true that managed care organizations want to satisfy consumers, but they want to satisfy the buyers of their services more (c).

2.       Purchasers want more meaningful outcomes information in order to have more information on which to base their purchasing decisions.

3.       Correct answer is (b)