Where are the data?

As benefit plan managers approach the problems of health care cost in a more businesslike manner, the need for accurate, timely, and complete information will increase dramatically. Those data needs should encourage every plan administrator to assure that the requisite quantity and quality of data are being collected and made available. In the future, it will be considered a dereliction of duty to stop there without assuring that the data are being studied and used to better manage the plan. The absence of such decision support virtually guarantees waste of plan assets.