Saunders C; AcademyHealth. Meeting (2003 : Nashville, Tenn.).
Abstr AcademyHealth Meet. 2003; 20: abstract no. 880.
Cal State U, Lonfg Beach, Health Care Administration, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840 Tel. (562)985-1962 Fax (562)985-5536
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: Identify the effectiveness of the toll-free telephone line for Healthy Families (S-CHIP) and MediCal for information offered in ten different languages and compare differences between the 2000 and 2002 studies. STUDY DESIGN: Mystery shopper telephone survey used for studies with bilingual and bicultural individuals posing as eligible uninsured inividuals. Mystery shoppers complete survey about their experience and information packets tracked for days to delivery. POPULATION STUDIED: Eligible but unenrolled population in Healthy Families or MediCal, esrimated to be 1.2 million individuals in California. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The analysis shows much variation among the ten languages offered by the toll free telephone line. In less than 40% of the phone calls, information was provided about benefit packages. There was a slight decline in successfully delivered packages from 2000 to 2002. There was an increase in sending applications from 2000 to 2002 and customer service staff were consistently more helpful, more courteous and less rushed in latter calls. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous quality improvement is necessary for public programs contracting for enrollment information services for public insurance programs. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY, DELIVERY OR PRACTICE: Individuals eligible but uninsured for public programs comprise a large number of those without financial access to care. Improvements must be made to ensure quality customer service to increase access to public insurance programs.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- California
- Information Services
- Insurance
- Insurance, Health
- Language
- Medically Uninsured
- Quality Control
- Telephone
- Universal Coverage
- economics
- hsrmtgs
Other ID:
UI: 102275844
From Meeting Abstracts