5. Public Reporting as a Quality Improvement Strategy

Table 5. Summary of evidence: public reporting on quality of health plans
Key Question 1: Does public reporting result in improvements in the quality of health care (including improvements in health care delivery
structures, processes, or patient outcomes)?
Key Question 2: What harms result from public reporting?
Key Question 3: Does public reporting lead to change in health care delivery structures or processes?
Key Question 4: Does public reporting lead to change in the behavior of patients, their representatives, or organizations that purchase care?
Key Question 5: What characteristics of public reporting increase its impact on quality of care?
Key Question 6: What contextual factors (population characteristics, decision type, and environmental) increase the impact of public reporting on
quality of care?
Author
Year
Public
Key
Results
(QA)
Abraham
2006 97
(Poor)
Bardenheier
2007 54
(Fair)
Beaulieu
2002 113
(Fair)
Report Study Overview
Performance
results
booklet
containing
member
satisfaction
survey results
awards for
quality.
Examined health plan
choices of employees of 16
firms that distributed or did
not distribute quality
information and whether
performance information
leads to switching plans.
N= 651 single employees
HEDIS Examined the effect of
HEDIS reporting on
childhood immunization
rates in health plans that
publicly reported their data
compared with the non
publicly reporting health
plans.
N=423 plans in 1999, 383
plans in 2000, 371 plans in
Plan profiles
provided by
employer
(Harvard)
2001 and 332 plans in 2002.
Examined whether quality
information affects health
plan choice in Harvard
University employees from
1994 to 1997.
N=11,500 employees
Question
(↑Improvement; ↓Worse; ↔No Difference)
4 ↔Quality information does not have an impact on switching plans
93
↑Employees are more likely to be aware of quality information when booklet is
distributed to all employees or available on request than when booklet was not
distributed by employers
1 ↑Public reporting results in a statistically significant increase in immunization
(p