Role of consumer information in today's health care system

This overview discusses articles published in this issue of the Health Care Financing Review, entitled "Consumer Information in a Changing Health Care System." The overview describes several trends promoting more active consumer participation in health decisions and how consumer information facilitates that role. Major issues in developing consumer information are presented, stressing how orientation to consumer needs and use of social marketing techniques can yield improvement. The majority of the articles published in this issue of the Review discuss different aspects of information for choice of health plan, ranging from consumer perspectives on their information needs and their comprehension of quality indicators, to methods used for providing such information, such as direct counseling and comparative health plan performance data. The article concludes with thoughts on how we will know if we succeed in developing effective consumer health information.