CAHPS Survey - Health Plan of San Joaquin

What is CAHPS?

CAHPS stands for Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. It is a survey that asks how members feel about the care they are getting from their doctors and the Health Plan overall. The survey is also known as member experience survey.

Each year, we send a survey to members to gather feedback about both adult and childcare. There are rules the Health Plan must follow that tell us how and when we send these. Child surveys are mailed to the family in English, Spanish and Chinese. Adult surveys are mailed in English and Spanish. If a mail is not returned, the plan will ask one more time. The Health Plan uses an outside vendor to send out surveys.

Hispanic female doctor talking to African patient

Our Health Plan wants to give all members the best care. Based on the feedback we get, we can do better by working on how quickly our members can get doctor’s visits and be seen.

To hear more from our members, the Health Plan has a group called the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) that meets once a month. The group is made up of members and health plan staff. The Health Plan can hear directly from members how to get better with:

• Rating of health care
• Rating of their own doctor
• Getting care quickly
• Getting needed care

Results from the most recent survey are added to the yearly Quality Work Plan. In the future, more counties will be added to the survey.

If you have any questions about CAHPS or want to join the CAC, please call at 1-888-936- (7526), TTY 711

Why does Health Plan do a CAHPS survey?

Health Plan uses these results to help give better care to our members. We look at the feedback given to find ways to change. We review our results and compare them with other health plans. Our goal is to be a leader in making members happy by delivering good care. We also look at the responses by groups of people to see if some people are not helped as much as others.

Results of the 2023 CAHPS Survey

We have results based on data taken from 2022 that was reviewed in 2023. For our adult questionnaire, we received 274 replies and for our child questionnaire we received 336 replies. We review results to see where we are doing well and where we can do better. These results are below.

Question	Adult Rate	Child Rate
Rating of Health Plan	73.9%	85.4%
Rating of Health Care	66.7%	81.1%
Rating of Personal Doctor	69.1%	85.4%
Rating of Specialist	82.2%	90.0%
Getting Needed Care	73.9%	78.7%
Getting Care Quickly	68.8%	73.4%
Customer Services	86.8%	88.6%
How Well Doctors Communicate	84.7%	91.3%
Coordination of Care	69.0%	82.8%
Ease of Filling Out Forms	93.8%	93.9%

Adult Supplemental Question	2023 Responses
Language spoken at home
English	65.6%
Spanish	28.9%
Khmer (Cambodian)	3.6%
Vietnamese	2.0%
Needed an interpreter to speak with a doctor (% Yes)	18.3%
Got interpreter	74.5%
Language barrier with doctor (% Never or Sometimes)	89.4%
Have you received services by a Behavioral Health Provider?	15.2%
In the last 6 months, which type of health care provider helped you with your emotional problems?(Specialist doctor (psychiatrist))	55.0%
General doctor or specialist?
General doctor	88.3%
Specialist	11.7%
What was the length of time you waited for an urgent appointment with the Behavioral Health Provider? (Urgent is defined as an unforeseen non-life-threatening illness or injury) (Less than 24 hours)	30.6%
What was the length of time you waited for an urgent appointment with the Behavioral Health Provider? (Urgent is defined as an unforeseen non-life-threatening illness or injury) (Less than 24 hours)	23.2%
How would you rate how well your Behavioral Health Provider listened to your concerns? (Summary Rate: % Excellent or very good)	66.7%

Child Supplemental Question	2023 Responses
Language spoken at home
English	35.9%
Spanish	56.3%
Some other language	7.4%
Khmer	0.3%
Language barrier with doctor (% Never or Sometimes)	89.0%
Dr. made it easy to address questions/concerns (% Always or Usually)	75.3%
Needed an interpreter to speak with a doctor (% Yes)	33.6%
Got interpreter	89.6%
Child needed an interpreter (% Yes)	10.8%
Child got interpreter (% Always or Usually)	87.9%
Have your child access Mental Health services?	32.3%
Was it easy to get an appointment with a Mental Health or Substance Abuse Specialist? (Always or usually)	26.0%
Was the MH/substance abuse provider helpful?	47.2%
Was it easy to get MH/substance abuse treatment or counseling? (Always or usually)	55.6%
What is your overall rating of treatment or counseling (%9 or 10 – Best treatment or counseling possible)	52.5%