What does it all mean? Making sense of health plan data.

With competition for enrollees reaching a fever pitch among health plans, calls are coming from many quarters for a reinvention of healthcare to focus on patients. That's producing a flood of information intended to help consumers compare plans and providers. What will consumers do with all the information? Will they understand it and use it?

Cost-control burden on HMOs' shoulders.

Better, but not good enough. At the end of 1997's fourth quarter, the average operating profit margin for the 17 publicly traded HMOs tracked by Douglas Sherlock, an analyst in Gwynedd, Pa., was 0.1%. Most margins were well under 2%. The fourth-quarter 1996 average operating margin was -1.6%.

Embracing change. The only thing you can count on in healthcare is that nothing will stay the same.

From more woes for managed-care firms to continued hospital mergers, particularly among not-for-profits, the staff of Modern Healthcare makes its predictions for the healthcare industry in the new year. And--which should come as no surprise to seasoned executives--1998 should turn out to be memorable, possibly invigorating and most certainly full of change.