Using patient surveys to measure health plan performance and improve quality of care.

The market place is demanding more information about health plan performance. Employer efforts to restrain increasing premium costs have spawned numerous business coalition initiatives to obtain and analyze performance information. Employer and health plan cooperation on the development of the Health Plan Employer Data Information Set (HEDIS) represents progress toward standardizing data capture, but the complexity of the information does not lend itself to consumer use. This article explores the evolution of the demand for health care performance information and the role of member/employee satisfaction surveys as a tool to capture meaningful data to help measure performance and improve quality.