Managed Health Services (MHS) began conducting semi-formal, intermittent surveys of its members during the third quarter of 2009 in an effort to improve MHS’ Consumer Assessment of Healthplan Providers and Systems (CAHPS) member satisfaction survey ratings for 2010. Members responded to questions developed to assess their perceptions with regard to their happiness with MHS doctors, their likelihood to remain MHS members, interaction with the MHS call center, access to medical care, and outreach and counseling received on tobacco product cessation.

The results of the third quarter key provider-related questions reflected:

• •68% of MHS members are “very happy” with their MHS doctor
• •18% percent reported being “somewhat happy” with their doctor
• •36% reported using tobacco
• •43% of those who indicated current tobacco use reported being advised by their doctor to stop tobacco use or receiving information regarding cessation of tobacco use.

There are opportunities for doctors to improve patient perceptions of care received. In addition, there are opportunities to increase efforts to discuss tobacco cessation with members and offer counseling or medication options to assist members who want to quit. MHS recommends referring these members to the Indiana Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW. www.indianatobaccoquitline.net/

The survey also presented members with multiple choice questions and allowed for free-form comments. Overall, member comments were positive regarding relationships with their MHS doctors and the care they receive.

When asked what aspect of their relationship with their MHS doctor members most wanted improved, the most common response was shorter wait times in doctor’s offices during an appointment and shorter timeframes to see the doctor when scheduling appointments.

As a reminder, we ask MHS doctors to schedule appointments within the Indiana Medicaid programs’ guidelines, based on the patient’s medical condition, as listed below:

APPOINTMENT TYPE	PROVIDER MUST SCHEDULE WITHIN
Urgent or emergent care	24 hours
Non-urgent symptomatic	72 hours
Routine physical exam	Three months
Initial appointment (non-pregnant adult)	Three months
Routine gynecological exam	Three months
Initial appointment well-child	Within 1 month of attempt to schedule an appointment
Children with special Healthcare needs	One month
Average office wait time	Equal to or less than one hour
Specialist referral: Emergency	24 hours
Specialist referral: Urgent	48 hours

MHS thanks you for your efforts to provide quality care to MHS members. Together, we can continue to improve the health of Hoosiers. If you have any questions or comments regarding the above appointment standards, please contact your MHS Provider Relations Specialist, or call us at (877) 647-4848.

This entry is filed under Blog, Providers.