WRONG WORD CHANGED MEANING

To the editor: Your Oct. 20 issue contained an article, "Easing HMO Comparisons," about the Foundation for Accountability's new framework for communicating quality information to purchasers and consumers.

The article says that one issue the framework addresses is the ". . .problem of duplicity in data." The Foundation has never accused any professional or provider organization with "deliberate deceptiveness in behavior," which is the American Heritage Dictionary's definition of duplicity.

Rather, we are concerned with duplication and expect that the framework will help to rationalize data collection efforts, allowing data from many sources to be aggregated and summarized to meet purchaser and consumer needs in an easy-to-understand manner. It will also help focus measurement development efforts at FACCT and elsewhere.

Alan Peres

Board member

Foundation for Accountability

Manager-Health Care Policy

Ameritech Corp.

Chicago