Recently there has been increased emphasis on consumer evaluation of health care services as a means for consumers to make meaningful choices among managed care plans and become more informed consumers of health care services. The Agency for Health Care Quality and Research has invested considerable effort to develop a standardized consumer satisfaction questionnaire, the Consumer Assessment of Health Plan Services, for this purpose. The CAHPS is now used by both commercial and public health insurance organizations to evaluate consumer views of services among different health plans. This paper reports findings of an analysis by race and ethnicity of Medicaid consumer's ratings of their health plans, using CAHPS, with particular emphasis on Latino consumers. The study found that Latino consumers rated their health plan services overall very highly, yet at the same time, objective evidence indicated that Latinos received lower quality of care than whites, and than commercially insured consumers on a number of indicators. This contradition was explored through examination of individual items and focus group discussions. It was found that Latino Medicaid consumers were most appreciative of access to care and the low cost of services, yet had specific areas of complaints or concerns such as waiting times, time doctors spent in explanation of children's illnesses, and barriers to appointments. The findings suggest ways that service improvements need to be targeted for Latino consumers and indicate that standardized questionnaires may not reveal important information about consumer satisfaction for non-white consumers.
Learning Objectives: 1. Participants will be able to identify quality of care issues for Latino consumers. 2. Participants will be able to implement alternative ways of collecting Latino consumer health care satisfaction information. 3. Participants will be able to define key service improvements for Latino consumers.
Keywords: Quality, Minority Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.