title: Quality information and consumer health plan choices.
abstract: This paper presents an empirical analysis of the effects of providing information about plan quality on consumers' health plan choices in a private employment setting. Analysis of plan switching behavior suggests that the provision of quality information had a small, but significant effect on consumer plan choices. Employees were more likely to switch from plans with lower reported quality. Cross-sectional analyses of plan choice indicate that reported quality played a role in plan selection even after controlling for other health plan characteristics commonly associated with plan choice. The age of the policyholder and the type of policy purchased moderated the effects of plan characteristics on plan choice in ways that may be consequential for adverse selection.
authors.affiliation: Harvard University and the National Bureau of Economic Research, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163, USA. nbeaulieu@hbs.edu
authors.forename: Nancy Dean
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Beaulieu
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005249:Fees and Charges; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D016015:Logistic Models; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008404:Massachusetts; D017059:Models, Econometric; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care