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Developing an Information Infrastructure for the Medicare+Choice Program Summary of a Workshop (1999) / Chapter Skim
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5 Role of Third Parties in the Information Infrastructure
Pages 23-28

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From page 23...
... HOW CONSUMERS USE INFORMATION FOR DECISION MAKING As mentioned previously in this report, recent research has examined how well Medicare beneficiaries understand the differences between the fee-for-service and managed care forms of Medicare. The task that beneficiaries face is one of choice, but the question is how well they understand the differences and similarities between these two health care delivery systems.
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From page 24...
... The most common sources that beneficiaries turn to are managed care plan advertisements. Results from a series of focus groups for the National Academy of Social Tnsurance's Restructuring Medicare for the Long Term project showed that beneficiaries preferred getting plan information from newspapers and print advertisements because the information seemed clearer to them.
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From page 25...
... More than 30 percent of the center's constituents are currently in Medicare managed care. aries: The center takes a three-pronged approach to disseminating information to benefici use of a telephone hot line; use of volunteers spread throughout the community; and · use of community education programs.
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From page 26...
... All three of these competing agendas are operating whenever a patient enters a health care provider's office. With the advance of managed care, more health care providers are finding that their patients also expect them to be experts on health care policy, health plans, and health insurance programs.
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From page 27...
... The committee heard that the marshaling of all of these existing local resources may be the best way to develop a viable information dissemination infrastructure. Conditioning the Market To prepare beneficiaries for the rush of new information regarding Medicare+Choice, beneficiaries and their families need to understand several key issues: the changes that are taking place in the health care market; the trade-offs that a beneficiary will face when switching from one health plan to another; and · how the system is best navigated once a beneficiary chooses a health plan.
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From page 28...
... The Center for Health Care Rights, under the direction of Peter Lee, is in the process of conducting research that looks at how much effective counseling programs cost. The research, however, is still in an early stage.
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Key Terms

  • information dissemination
  • traditional medicare
  • medicare managed
  • care rights
  • beneficiaries understand

  • health plan
  • dissemination infrastructure
  • medicare program
  • budget act
  • information infrastructure

  • third parties
  • plan choice
  • balanced budget
  • health insurance
  • health plans

  • multiple roles
  • information brokers
  • committee heard
  • judith hibbard
  • peter lee

  • preferred getting
  • surrounding consumer
  • plan options
  • sources results
  • assisting medicare

  • patient enters
  • practice viable
  • care market
  • care arrangements
  • participants urged


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