To help or hinder: Which is more important in explaining a physician’s willingness to recommend a health plan?

The purpose of this study by HIP Investigator Dr. Maureen Smith was to examine how specific health plan practices contribute to physicians’ willingness to recommend a health plan to a patient, and whether the relative importance of plan practices is viewed differently when patients are seriously ill. 

They leveraged the Physician’s Evaluation of Health Plans Project, which has surveyed 1,757 generalist physicians in 16 health plans in 5 areas nationwide and learned that from the physician’s perspective, the relative importance of plan strategies to manage care is different for typical patients and patients who are more seriously ill.