Physicians and Preventive Services

Excerpt

To the Editors: In their recent article, Udvarhelyi and colleagues (1) compared the quality of ambulatory care (hypertension control and delivery of selected preventive procedures) by insurance status (fee-for-service compared with prepaid) for patients treated in the same medical offices by the same physicians. In their study setting, they found that the quality and quantity of ambulatory care for patients enrolled in a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) was equal to or better than that for patients receiving care on a fee-for-service basis. In their Discussion the authors considered the hypothesis that "individual physicians were unable to differentiate their styles of