Performance reporting of health care delivery systems: will it make the grade?

Recently, federal governments, state governments, and private sector groups have begun initiatives that would report the performance of health plans in key areas. United HealthCare Corporation's experience in developing and publicly releasing "report cards" for 15 of its health plans may prove useful as other efforts go forward. There are both advantages and challenges to producing a report card in terms of resource investment, directing health plans toward performance improvement, and the ability for both purchasers and policy makers to understand and make use of results. These and other issues will be important to consider as other segments of the health care industry, particularly providers, focus on reporting performance measures.