The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) was originally created in December 1989, with the directive to "support research designed to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans." With a budget of close to $270 million, the AHRQ disburses 80 percent of those monies as grants and contracts to researchers at universities and other research...

Released in November, 2000, this 51-page report "set out to identify plan-level practices that contribute to a positive experience for plan members." Using data from the Medicare Managed Care Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey, the study examines nine plans with "different patterns of performance operating in five geographic markets." Not surprisingly, the study found that patients rated...