About the Member Survey

Another important part of the HEDIS measurement set is a standardized member survey used by health plans to evaluate patients’ experience and satisfaction with their plan.  Information obtained from these surveys helps plans improve the quality of their services.  Consumers use the comparative results to learn more about CCHRI health plans.

Independent research firms, using a uniform process that produces accurate and comparable results about specific plans, administered the NCQA-approved CAHPS member survey for CCHRI plans.  The survey was mailed to a randomly selected subset of members from each health plan and follow-up telephone calls were conducted for those members who didn’t respond to the initial questionnaire.

Results include the percentage of sampled members who responded favorably to questions about their health plan or medical care and are based on random samples of participating health plan members (minimum sample size per plan = 1100).  The survey was conducted during 2009 but reflects information about medical care and services provided to members during 2008.

In early 2009, approximately HMO 24,000 and 8,800 PPO members received questionnaires asking them to evaluate their experiences with their health plan during 2008.  The research firm tabulated and reported the results based on answers from members who replied to the survey. Findings shown in this report include combined responses from several similar questions that are summarized into composite categories.  In addition, the survey results contain four rated questions that measure members’ overall experience with their medical care.  Rated questions use a 0 to 10 scale, where 0 is the worst and 10 is the best score possible.

Composite categories include groups of related questions designed to provide a general idea of how well a health plan meets its members’ expectations in specific areas.  The categories report the combined results of several questions associated with a similar subject (e.g., Getting Needed Care includes responses to questions about ease of obtaining an appointment with a specialist and getting tests and treatments).

All the responses included in a composite category are weighted equally to obtain a single score.  For example, for questions with four possible answers, the results used to create a composite score include all responses that fall in the top two favorable categories (i.e., Always or Usually).  Results listed are for commercial HMO and PPO members only; Medicare or Medi-Cal beneficiaries covered under a managed care plan are not included.  Use caution when comparing HMO to PPO results since not all HMO plans have a PPO product; therefore, the PPO cross-plan averages are based on a subset of the HMO plans.

It is possible that health plan members who returned the questionnaire or participated in telephone interviews are more satisfied or less satisfied than members who did not return the questionnaire.  In addition, because of differences among health plans in the numbers of members who responded to the survey, outcomes that are statistically significant (above average, average, below average) for one plan may not be statistically significant for another, even when the rates are the same.  When reviewing the results, please compare each plan to the average and not to the other plans. Most scores are based on small samples of health plan members and small differences between plans may not be statistically significant or meaningful.

CCHRI Senior Manager
Cathie Markow, PBGH
cmarkow@pbgh.org

Reporting Principles

Guidelines for Use of Data

About the Reports

Clinical Measure Descriptions