Consumer involvement--a vital piece of the quality quilt: the California HealthCare Foundation's strategy for engaging California consumers.

How can the delivery of health services be made accountable to the needs and desires of those who receive and, ultimately, pay for them? The approach of the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) has been to build a supply of consumer friendly information, to encourage societal vigilance through public reporting, and to disseminate it using both traditional and non-traditional strategies in order to reach underserved and disenfranchised populations.