Newhouse, Joseph P. <br/><br/>
How sophisticated are consumers about the medical care delivery system? / 
Joseph P. Newhouse, John E. Ware, Jr., Cathy A. Donald. 
 - ix, 24 pages ;  23 cm 
 - Health insurance experiment series .
<br/><br/> "April 1981." 
<br/><br/>Includes bibliographical references (p. 23-24). 
<br/><br/> A study of consumer knowledgeability about medical care services and its effect on the role consumers might play in decisions affecting resource allocation, especially whether competition and/or cost-sharing strategies should be pursued or whether regulatory strategies are more promising.  An important goal of the study was to derive a scale that would permit measurement of the extent of consumer knowledge.  Analyses of a ten-item questionnaire administered to nonaged persons showed that consumers are knowledgeable about some areas of medical care and uninformed about others.  If a procompetitive medical care strategy is pursued, consumers need to be educated about board certification, staff privileges, and other factors pertinent to choosing a regular source of medical care.  Factor analyses indicated that a substantial amount of information from item responses can be summarized in a multi-item scale that is reliable and valid as a measurement of patient sophistication. 
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<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>0833003208 
<br/><br/><label>Standard Tech. Report. No.: </label>RAND/R-2693-HHS 
<br/><br/><label>Source: </label> $20.00 
<br/><br/><label>LCCN: </label>81007322 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Medical care--Public opinion.--United States<br/>Public opinion--United States.<br/>Consumer Participation.<br/>Delivery of Health Care--United States.
<br/><br/><label>LC Class. No.: </label>RA395.A3  / N48 1981