Health Maintenance Organizations in the United States, 1984

Résumé 0

The Health Maintenance Organization study was designed to provide an up-to-date report card on how well HMOs are meeting the aspirations and demands of members, employers, and physicians who work in them. This study includes a detailed assessment of the strengths and successes, weaknesses and failures of HMOs as perceived by their key constituencies. This survey also obtained attitudes toward, and knowledge of HMOs among the general public, as well as changes in those attitudes. Other objectives include a comparison of different levels of knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of HMOs among the public, employers, and physicians both working in HMOs and non-HMO physicians. Variables in the Corporate Employer file include familiarity with HMOs, whether the company offers HMOs to employees, type of experience with HMOs, incentives and drawbacks of HMOs, number of employees, industry of the company, and number of years at present position of the executive being interviewed. The Physicians file contains variables on opinions and attitudes toward HMOs, whether the physician is an HMO practitioner, the number of HMO patients seen in a week, changes in the physician's practice caused by HMOs, primary speciality, number of years in practice, and age. The Members of HMOs and Public Cross-Section files contain variables on HMO membership, opinions on services at HMOs, comparisons between HMOs and traditional services, desire to join an HMO, health of respondent, occupation, education, age, marital and financial status, and race.