Summary: Rapid changes in the health insurance industry have spurred calls for greater information dissemination to enable consumers to make more informed choices. Purchasers of health care, such as large employers and agencies responsible for government employee health plans, have become more active in the information movement as they have adopted "value-based" purchasing strategies. For both purchasers and their employees, information is critical in choosing the highest-quality health plan for the dollar and in promoting efficiency and responsiveness in the provision of health care services. In September 1996, the President created the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry and charged it with recommending measures to promote health care quality and protect consumers and workers in the health care system. The Commission issued its initial recommendations in November 1997. This report (1) reviews the Commission's recommendations regarding information to be provided to consumers and compares them with the information now provided to employees of large public and private health care purchasers, (2) reviews the available evidence from purchasers and researchers concerning the extent to which consumers are able to make use of this information, and (3) discusses the potential cost of bridging any existing information disclosure gap between the Commission's recommendations and purchasers' existing practices.
