Measuring the physician perspective on quality of care in health plans

Physicians provide one source of information about the quality of care in h ealth plans, but concerns exist that physicians cannot distinguish quality from financial considerations or other underlying attitudes. We examined wh ether physicians can (a) distinguish different domains of health plan quali ty and (b) distinguish health plan quality from their underlying attitudes. We analyzed data an 419 generalist physicians from four health plans. Thre e scales assessed physicians 'perceptions of facilitators and barriers to h igh-quality care in the plans and the clinical capabilities of plan physici ans. Structural equation modeling indicated that physicians could distingui sh domains of health plan quality Physicians could also distinguish plan qu ality from their attitudes reward the plan, but plan quality was more highl y correlated with general managed can attitudes than expected These data su ggest that physicians can provide information about health plan quality, bu t it will be important to validate these measures against patient outcomes