title: Corporate management of quality in employee health plans.
abstract: As large companies move their employees into managed care, they must concern themselves with the quality and price of their employees' health care. Based on a survey of Fortune 500 companies, we show that most are integrating several aspects of quality into their purchasing and contracting decisions by focusing on three dimensions--customer service, network composition, and clinical quality. Companies focus on the customer service dimension while the medical community emphasizes clinical quality.
authors.affiliation: JSI Research & Training Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Temin
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation; D003164:Competitive Bidding; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003284:Contract Services / Q000592:standards; D003625:Data Collection; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D006265:Health Care Coalitions; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016015:Logistic Models; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States