Employers: quality takers or quality makers?

Abstract

This article provides a synthesis of past research to help understand the extent to which employers are using their considerable market power to drive health care quality. Are employers quality takers or quality makers? The literature provides some clues about aspects of quality employers are attempting to influence, strategies they are pursuing to influence quality, and their impact. Some employers are interested in some indicators of quality and are incorporating them in a variety of different purchasing strategies. The indicators most frequently used by employers, however, probably are not the ones that clinical experts and policy makers would select as most reflective of clinical quality. It appears that employers as a group are becoming more informed quality takers but are not yet quality makers--with the exception of a few well-resourced outliers. Recent events provide mixed signals about whether the future employer role in influencing quality will diminish, stall, or flourish.