title: Adherence to standards of care by health maintenance organizations in Israel and the USA.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The health-care systems in the USA and Israel differ in organization, financing and expenditure levels. However, managed care organizations play an important role in both countries, and a comparison of the performance of their community-based health plans could inform policymakers about ways to improve the quality of care.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare the adherence to standards of care in Israel and in the USA.
  
  
  METHODS
  An observational study comparing trends in performance using data from reports of the National Quality Measures Program in Israel and of the National Committee for Quality Assurance in the USA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Differences in specifications preclude a comparison between most measures in the two reports. However, the comparison of 11 similar measures in the 2007 reports indicates that performance was higher in the USA by 10 or more percentage points on four measures (flu immunization, medication for asthma, screening for colorectal cancer and monitoring for diabetic nephropathy). Performance was higher in Israel on three measures in patients with diabetes (blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and glycemic control), and similar on the remaining four measures. Between 2005 and 2007, quality of care improved in both countries. However, improvement was slower in the USA than in Israel.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In comparison with the USA, Israel achieves comparable health maintenance organization (HMO) quality on several primary care indicators and more rapid quality improvement, despite its substantially lower level of expenditure. Considering the differences between the two countries in settings and populations, further research is needed to assess the causes, generalizability and policy implications of these findings.
authors.affiliation: Smokler Center for Health Policy Research, Myers-JDC Brookdale Institute, Jerusalem, Israel. bruce@jdc.org.il
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.forename: Avi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Porath
authors.forename: L Gregory
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Pawlson
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Chassin
authors.forename: Jochanan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benbassat
mesh_terms: D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000458:organization & administration; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States