Table 4.

Effect of “Plan-A” on CAHPS Scores for Beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage (MA) Plans, California (CA) versus Non-CA, Full Case Mix Adjustments, 2008^†

	MA Differences: CA−Non-CA‡
CAHPS Outcomes	All CA Plans	Only “Plan-A”	Without “Plan-A”
Physician services
Global rating of personal physician or nurse	−0.80***	−0.17	−1.27***
Global rating of specialist	−1.17***	0.31	−2.25***
Global rating of health care	−0.39*	0.39	−1.00***
Doctor communication (four-item composite)	−0.79***	0.31	−1.62***
Ease of getting needed care (two-item composite)	−1.47***	−0.58	−2.32***
Immunizations
Getting a flu shot in the previous year	3.91***	9.14***	−0.53
Getting a pneumonia shot	3.31***	10.48***	−2.86***
Plan services
Global rating of MA plan or Medicare (if fee-for-service)	0.50***	1.57***	−0.40*
Getting care quickly (two-item composite)	1.94***	3.99***	0.25
Ease of paperwork (stand-alone report item)	2.32***	4.31***	−0.88
Customer service (three-item composite)	0.43	1.90***	−1.10**
Part D prescription drugs
Global rating of prescription drug coverage	1.77***	2.87***	0.82***
Ease of getting needed drugs (three-item composite)	2.17***	3.76***	0.74***
Getting information on drugs (two-item composite)	1.82***	3.53***	0.20

^†Response scores are linearly rescaled to a 0–100 possible range to facilitate comparisons across measures.

^‡Case mix adjusted using the standard CAHPS adjustments plus adjustments for race/ethnicity and urbanicity. The non-CA comparison group for all three differences is all non-CA MA plans; only the CA plans vary.

^*p<.05

^**p<.01

^***p<.001.

CAHPS, Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.