Intentions to join HMOs: perceived relative performance versus satisfaction/dissatisfaction.

This study employed a national sample to investigate the determinants of consumers' intentions to join HMOs by considering different health care attributes. It employed two models, a performance model and a satisfaction model. The study found that the robustness of the performance model was substantially stronger in explaining intentions to join HMOs than the satisfaction model. More specific findings indicated that the health care attributes of cost and quality of care were important in both models, although to a far greater extent in the performance model, and that availability of physicians was also important in the performance model, albeit to a lesser degree. The study also examined demographic characteristics that may serve as a basis for segmenting the health care market. Of those considered, only two, age and urban/rural residence, were found to be significant. Age was considerably the more important of the two and younger respondents were far more interested in joining HMOs than their older counterparts. The pattern of results for the young subsample paralleled those found for the entire sample.