Managed care and women's health: Access, preventive services, and satisfaction

This paper examines insured women's access to health care, receipt of preve ntive services, and satisfaction with care by the types of health plans in which they are enrolled. Three types of plans are compared: managed care (H MOs and PPOs), fee-for-service with utilization controls, and traditional f ee-for-service. For women who have been enrolled in their plans for at leas t one year, we find the same or better access to care in managed care plans as compared with other plans; receipt of more gender-specific clinical pre ventive services in managed care plans, but no differences among types of p lans for non-gender-specific preventive services or counseling services; an d lower satisfaction with care in managed care plans. The implications for practice and policy are discussed.