In March 2019 Care Compass Network conducted a survey to better understand, from a patient perspective, their understanding of health insurance and the process taken to learn about their coverage, as well as understand the healthcare providers’ and community organizations’ understanding of their patient’s knowledge and understanding around health insurance.
Methodology
The percentages shared below are based on a total of 102 responses (60% from Community Members and 40% from the Medicaid/ Uninsured) from the Medicaid and Community Member panel group and 69 responses (52% from Community Organizations and 48% from Healthcare Providers) from the Provider and Community Organization panel group. Responses were collected over a two month period.
Key Findings from a Patient Perspective
In this section we asked a series of questions to the Medicaid Members/ Uninsured and Community Resident panel members to gauge their level of understanding and comfort when it comes to health insurance coverage and obtaining health insurance.
How would you like to obtain health insurance benefit coverage assistance from someone, or get help understanding health insurance benefits or coverage?
This question gave respondents a choice between 4 options: Speaking with someone face-to-face, Speaking with someone over the phone, Using the online chat function, or Other. The respondents were able to select more than one choice. From the responses received, the Community Members were more likely to prefer obtaining health insurance coverage or get help over the phone. While Medicaid Members/ Uninsured preferred being face-to-face with someone. Those that selected Other as a choice added emails, printed mailings, web-based information, or online documents where other ways they liked to obtain information.
On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being Not at All Confident and 5 being Very Confident), how confident are you with your ability to obtain health insurance?
The majority of Medicaid Members/ Uninsured and Community Members both felt confident to very confident in their ability to obtain health insurance coverage.
On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being Not at All Likely and 5 being Very Likely), how likely are you to contact your insurance to learn what medical services your health plan covers?
The Medicaid Member/ Uninsured respondents are slightly more likely to contact their health insurance to learn what medical services are covered under their plan than the Community Members.
Key Findings from a Provider Perspective
In this section we asked a series of questions to the Healthcare Providers and Community Organizations to see what they felt their patients/ clients level of understanding and comfort is when it comes to health insurance coverage and obtaining health insurance.
On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being Not at all Confident and 5 being Very Confident), how confident are you with your patient’s/ client’s understanding of knowing where to go if they have trouble affording health insurance?
Both the Healthcare Provider and Community Organization panel groups did not feel confident that their patient’s/ client’s knew where to go if they were experience difficulties in affording health insurance.
On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being Not at all Knowledgeable and 5 being Very Knowledgeable, please indicate the knowledge level of your patients/ clients regarding their out-of-pocket costs related to primary care visits?
Providers were slightly more confident that their patients/ clients understood what their out-of-pocket expenses are than the Community Organization panel group.
Additional findings from the 2019 Health Insurance Literacy – Full Survey Results can be downloaded.