Consumer Reports in Health Care: Do They Make a Difference?

Abstract

The public release of health care-quality data into more formalized consumer health report cards is intended to educate consumers, improve quality of care, and increase competition in the marketplace The purpose of this review is to evaluate the evidence on the impact of consumer report cards on the behavior of consumers, providers, and purchasers. Studies were selected by conducting database searches in Medline and Healthstar to identify papers published since 1995 in peerreview journals pertaining to consumer report cards on health care. The evidence indicates that consumer report cards do not make a difference in decision making, improvement of quality, or competition. The research to date suggests that perhaps we need to rethink the entire endeavor of consumer report cards. Consumers desire information that is provider specific and may be more likely to use information on rates of errors and adverse outcomes. Purchasers may be in a better position to understand and use information about health plan quality to select high-quality plans to offer consumers and to design premium contributions to steer consumers, through price, to the highest-quality plans.

A Qualitative Study of Choosing Home Health Care After Hospitalization: The Unintended Consequences of ‘Patient Choice’ Requirements

“…5,[13][14][15] On the other hand, surveys indicate an increase in consumers' use of public reports, 16 and consumers express a desire to have access to information that helps to make or affirm healthcare decisions. 17,18 Increasing awareness and use of public reports is especially timely for home health agencies, given state and national policies that encourage providers and payers to ensure that patients receive care in the least-restrictive setting possible.…”

Demand-Driven Care and Hospital Choice. Dutch Health Policy Toward Demand-Driven Care: Results from a Survey into Hospital Choice

“…Consumers continue to use hospitals with high mortality rates and they appear to be influenced by anecdotal press reports of untoward deaths in hospitals rather than by risk adjusted mortality rates. When patients use performance data to select a health plan, they use it to eliminate poor performing plans rather than to choose the highest performing plans [48].…”

National Hospital Ratings Systems Share Few Common Scores And May Generate Confusion Instead Of Clarity

“…15 In addition to these formal rating systems, the CMS Hospital Compare website, reporting programs sponsored by states and regional quality collaboratives (for example, Chartered Value Exchanges), web-based consumer-driven rating systems (for example,Yelp), and hospital systems' self-reported performance (including their own websites and paid media) serve as additional inputs into consumers' decision making. [16][17][18] Aside from differences in their for-profit status, the four national rating systems also differ in how they finance the ratings. Independently funding the work of rating hospitals (that is, acquiring, analyzing, and presenting the data) is essential because such work is rarely underwritten by grants or other public funding sources.…”