Narrator: This is Science Today. If you're enrolled in a managed care health plan, you may think you have better access to preventive services like disease screenings or immunizations than in non-managed plans. In fact, studies in the past have said as much - but new research from the University of California, San Francisco, has found this may not be the case. Kathryn Phillips, lead author of the latest study, says that's because managed care has changed dramatically over the last decade.

Phillips: What we found overall is that we really don't know whether managed care plans do or do not provide more preventive services than fee for service plans.

Narrator: That's because there's no longer just one type of managed care health plan, so Phillips recommends better consumer awareness.

Phillips: Consumers should know what type of plan they're in, what types of benefits they provide, how well their plan scores relative to other plans in terms of providing preventive services that are recommended.

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