OBJECTIVES: Managed care has implemented various drug benefits management strategies like formularies, that most patients lack understanding of and may lead to dissatisfaction. The objective of this study was to evaluate consumer satisfaction with health plans and understand their attitude towards drug benefit management strategies, particularly the use of drug formularies. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted by administering a survey to consumers (N = 714) waiting to pick a prescription in community pharmacies (N = 72) in the Houston metropolitan area. A prevalidated questionnaire was used to measure satisfaction with health plan using an eleven-item, five-point scale where 1- very dissatisfied - 5 = very satisfied. A 12 item strongly disagree (1) -- strongly agree (5) Likert scale was used to measure consumer perceptions and knowledge regarding drug formularies. Data along with demographic information such as age, gender, marital status, race, education and income were collected, coded, and analyzed at a set priori significance level of .05 to perform descriptive and correlation analyses. RESULTS: Among the surveyed population, only 25% of patients owned a copy of the formulary. Majority of the respondents were white (43%), female (52%), married (52 %), and working fulltime (64 %) with a mean age of 39.58 (SD 13.96) years. Overall, consumers had negative attitude towards formularies 2.77 (SD 0.66). Respondents indicated neutral rating with respect to satisfaction with drugs included on their formulary 3.0 (SD 0.9). Consumers were somewhat satisfied with their health plans 3.51 (SD 0.73). There was a significant (p <0.05) positive correlation between satisfaction with health plans and attitude towards formularies (r = 0.176) as well as with satisfaction with drug coverage (r = 0.369). CONCLUSIONS: Consumers had negative attitude toward formularies, which may be attributed to their lack of knowledge regarding formularies. Patient education efforts by health plan providers may help change consumer attitudes and improve satisfaction.