31.   The study urged companies and health plans to press for quality improvements by hospitals and doctors.

32.   The Senate bill specifically allows employers and health plans to use managed-care techniques to help control costs.

33.   They urge health plans to insulate doctors from the direct economic effects of what they do for particular patients.

34.   Under the rules, insurance companies must provide patients with comprehensive, easy-to-understand information about how their health plans work.

35.   What the panel can do is impose ground rules that force health plans to compete by serving the medical needs of their patients, not just by controlling costs.

36.   Patients would be guaranteed an independent review of disputed decisions by HMOs and other health plans to put off or refuse treatment recommended by physicians.

37.   Texas and Georgia, for instance, have new laws governing health plans.

38.   He also urged private-sector health plans to follow suit.