Preparing for managed competition.

Abstract

Without the demands of managed competition or economic incentives to control costs, providers have little reason to invest in systematic data analysis about their patients. Information technologies in the hands of health care managers and physician executives primarily are tools for cost control, and, if cost control is not an important issue for them, they do not learn how to do it. The rules of the game have already changed for providers where managed care dominates the medical community and will change for the entire nation under managed competition. Managed competition gives providers strong incentives to identify the costs of care and unnecessary variations in those costs, to introduce new processes of care to reduce unnecessary administrative and clinical costs, to implement practice guidelines to reduce variations in outcomes of care, and to document statistics indicating excellent quality.