Health Plans Could Share More Information

Health insurance plans could do a better job of sharing important information with their customers, enhancing patient safety, a U.S. report said.

The eValue8 report of health plan performance released at the National Business Coalition on Health's annual conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., includes data on 200 health plans and health insurers that cover 100 million Americans.

A survey by the National Business Coalition on Health found 100 percent of the health plans said they offer provider directories, 58 percent of health plans indicated they provide information on office hours and 60 percent said they provide publicly available, evidence-based measures of quality.

However, 28 percent provide mortality or complication rates where applicable and 31 percent provide patient experience data.

Consumers are rarely informed about which physicians have adopted health information technology (i.e. computerized records), 28 percent of plans provide information on a physician's accessibility of e-mail communications, 15 percent include information on availability of Web consultations and 10 percent include information on prescribing.