When performing a soft-handoff, a communication system determines whether to engage in an analysis of a reverse link associated with a base station under consideration to be added to an active set of a mobile station (MS). Upon determining not to analyze the reverse link, the communication system adds the base station to the active set without evaluating the associated reverse link. Upon determining to engage in a reverse link analysis, the communication system evaluates the reverse link in order to assure that a communication link is not terminated, or dropped, as part of the soft-handoff until such time as the communication system may confirm that an acceptable quality reverse link is being added. The communication system then determines whether to add the base station to the active set based upon the evaluation.