Majority of doctors dislike managed care

HR Magazine, Nov, 1998 by Bill Leonard

Nearly seven out of 10 physicians consider themselves "anti-managed" care, according to a recent study conducted by the MEDSTAT Group and J.D. Power and Associates. The study surveyed nearly 30,000 doctors about health care plans in 22 markets throughout the United States.

While the physicians seemed to express a dissatisfaction with managed-care plans in general, the survey respondents in some markets did rank the performance of health maintenance organizations higher than nonmanaged care plans. This finding is consistent when compared to a survey of health-care consumers conducted earlier this year.

"Physicians provide a unique perspective of health plan performance," says Ron Conlin, a partner with J.D. Power. "Physicians have experiences with plans that are not available to all consumers and employers. In fact, the study shows that physicians tend to be much tougher evaluators of health plans than are enrollees."

The study revealed that the doctors want to remain independent and operate with a minimum amount of interference from health plans. More than 75 percent of the responding physicians indicated that "having to justify my clinical decisions to others is annoying." Also nearly 50 percent of the respondents felt that "being profiled on utilization and satisfaction makes me mad."

According to the report, having physicians rate health plan performance is important to consumers for two key reasons. First, doctors can identify the plans that are pressuring them to reduce costs at the sacrifice of quality care. Almost one-third of the respondents felt that "being pressured to withhold specific patient services that could improve care" is a serious problem among the plans with which they work.

Second, when doctors are unhappy with a plan's performance, they will stop contracting with that plan. The study revealed that half of the physicians who are dissatisfied with a plan's overall treatment of doctors would "probably" or "definitely" remove the plan from their practice.