www.ncqa.org—The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is a private, not-for-profit organisation that aims to improve the quality of health care in the USA. It is best known for its work in assessing and reporting on the quality of the American managed care plans through its accreditation and performance measurement programmes.

www.ncqa.org/Programs/HEDIS/index.htm—The Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is a set of standardised performance measures that attempt to give purchasers and consumers information to help them compare the performance of managed health care plans.

www.ahcpr.gov/qual/cahpsix.htm—The Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPS) provides tools to measure and report consumer experience with specific aspects of health plans.

www.facct.org—The Foundation for Accountability (FACCT) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping Americans make better health care decisions. FACCT’s board of trustees is made up of consumer organisations, and purchasers of health care services and insurance representing 80 million Americans.

www.pbgh.org—The Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH) is nationally recognised for its purchaser efforts to improve the quality of health care while moderating costs.

www.ahcpr.gov/data/hcup/hcup-pkt.htm—The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) is a family of healthcare databases and related software tools and products developed through a Federal-State-industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)