The challenge of documenting managed care cost savings and performance

It is not too late for managed care to turn this situation around because the debate over health care reform and managing change is ongoing. It remains to be seen whether managed care companies will support independent third parties (i.e., researchers) in analyzing proprietary data and making value judgments about their effectiveness. There is a perception among managed care organizations that potentially negative findings could damage them in the marketplace. Nonetheless, smart organizations use negative findings as new opportunity targets for service improvement and product refinement. To what extent will managed care companies voluntarily release accurate data on performance factors in order for researchers to conduct cross-company analyses? Perhaps competitive markets such as managed care are not consistent with voluntary data sharing. On the other hand, mandatory reporting will not ensure data accuracy either. It is up to the managed care industry itself to develop a cooperative approach to data collection, analysis, and dissemination.