Narrator: This is Science Today. Selecting a managed care health plan is no easy task - especially with so many different types of plans to choose from. One feature many people may look for in a plan is the amount of preventive care offered, but Kathryn Phillips, a health services researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, says consumers should first understand what kind of preventive services are offered.

Phillips: There are some services that may not be relevant for certain people, so consumers need to know what's recommended for people in their category and be familiar with the recommendations so that they know when to ask their provider about getting a certain service.

Narrator: Phillips and her colleagues will be looking into how different types of managed care plans influence the use of cancer screening.

Phillips: So we'll be able to examine such things as what types of benefits are provided, what types of provider networks are available, what types of systems are in place so that we can get inside of the black box of managed care to try to figure out what's really going on care and what characteristics of plans are most important?

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.