A recent article in the American Journal of Managed Care by Harvard researchers Meredith Rosenthal and Anna Sinaiko examines consumers' experiences with a tiered physician network, a cost-saving and quality-spurring approach used by many employers. Surveying individuals enrolled in health plans offered by the Massachuetts Group Insurance Commission, the authors find that half (49.5%) of the respondents had prior knowledge of the tiered networks in the health plans and that those who saw a specialist in the last year and those who used the Internet for health information were more likely to be aware of this special network arrangement. In addition, 35.5 percent of those surveyed did not trust the tiers to indicate which physicians were better than others. While stratifying provider networks holds promise, the authors suggest that greater success requires enhanced consumer awareness and trust in health plans.
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