Satisfaction and choice: a view from the plans

Community-wide surveys have demonstrated that managed care enrollees tend to express higher satisfaction with their health plan if they have been given the opportunity to make a choice between managed care and fee-for-service plans. This DataWatch shows similar results with plan-specific data, even for enrollees whose plan benefits include coverage for out-of-network services. That is, what matters seems to be choice at the time of enrollment, not at the point of service. Further, in the practical application of ranking plans on overall enrollee satisfaction, choice appears to be a more important influence than other factors that may receive attention, including enrollees' health status. We discuss this phenomenon with respect to competition and strategy in the managed care marketplace.