How will consumers use report cards in selecting health plans?

There are many new tools, such as health plan report cards, to help consumers and employers to compare health plan options. However, their usefulness has been limited in several ways: the lack of outside verification, questions about comparability of data reported, and the focus on health plans, not individual providers, as the unit of analysis. Organizations like the National Committee for Quality Assurance are making important improvements in reporting methods and presentation. The next step is to assess the usefulness of current report cards and to make them more responsive to the specific needs of consumers.