Managed Health Care Survey from RAND Health Care

A Survey to Characterize Critical Elements of Public Sector Arrangements

This survey is designed to capture key differences between managed and "un-managed" care as well as differences among managed care arrangements. The survey was developed by a multi-institutional group of collaborators with participation of an expert panel.

The survey includes six domains predicted to have an impact on access, service utilization, costs and quality. The domains are: characteristics of the managed care plan, enrolled population, benefit design, payment and risk arrangements, composition of provider networks, and accountability. Data are collected at three levels: managed care organization, subcontractor, and network of service providers.

Data are collected through contract abstraction and key informant interviews. A multilevel coding scheme organizes the data into a matrix along key domains, which is then reviewed and verified by the key informants.

The survey can usefully differentiate between and among Medicaid fee-for-service programs and Medicaid managed care plans along key domains of interest. Beyond documenting basic features of the plans and providing contextual information, these data can help refine and test hypotheses about how public sector managed care affects access, quality, costs, and outcomes of care.

Available Documents

Overview of the surveys

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