Maryland Measures Satisfaction of Medicaid Recipients
From 1992 to 1997, staff from the Maryland Health Care Access and Cost Commission developed and fielded a survey to measure Medicaid recipients' satisfaction with their medical care.
Key Results
In 1995, project staff mailed a 67-item questionnaire—the Maryland Medicaid Recipient Survey—to a random sample of 3,000 Medicaid recipients.
The survey measured Medicaid recipients' perceptions of care and access to services they received in two settings:- An experimental Medicaid program called Maryland Access to Care.
- Traditional health maintenance organizations (HMOs).
Key Findings
Generally, respondents rated HMOs less favorably than the Maryland Access to Care program.
- HMO enrollees gave worse ratings than Maryland Access to Care enrollee respondents to all three summary items in the survey:
- Overall rating of care.
- Evaluation of how many things needed to be improved.
- Whether the respondent would recommend a provider to someone with a similar health condition.
- HMO respondents also gave worse ratings on nine of 16 access-to-care issues, including:
- Choice of doctor or nurse practitioner.
- Length of wait for an appointment.
- Convenience of location.
- HMO respondents gave worse ratings on all questions related to interpersonal treatment by office staff and evaluation of the physician or nurse practitioner.
- HMO respondents rated out-of-pocket expenses as better.
- HMO enrollees gave worse ratings than Maryland Access to Care enrollee respondents to all three summary items in the survey: