SURVEY DATA SHOWS PATIENT SATISFACTION WITH TRICARE PRIME MILITARY HEALTH CARE PROGRAM
The Department of Defense announced today preliminary data
from a comprehensive satisfaction survey which looks at the new
military health care program called TRICARE. According to
information collected, the majority of active duty and retired
military personnel, and their families are happy with their
health care under TRICARE Prime and plan to re-enroll in the
program,. The data also shows an increase in satisfaction with
health care received in military hospitals and clinics since the
introduction of the Prime program.
The survey rated enrollees' understanding of the program as
well as their satisfaction with TRICARE Prime. Overall
satisfaction covered six aspects: administration, medical care,
access and convenience, coverage, information about coverage and
costs.
Prime enrollees said they were most satisfied with the
customer service and quality of medical care, while they were
less satisfied with such features as the provider network size
and the ability to access specialists.
Survey results show that 89 percent of non-active duty
TRICARE Prime participants are likely to re-enroll in Prime,
while only seven percent said they are unlikely to re-enroll.
The data collected also indicates that most beneficiaries
have a solid comprehension of TRICARE Prime, with 75 percent of
non-active duty and 62 percent of active duty reporting they have
a good to excellent understanding of the health care program.
The satisfaction survey, sponsored by the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Stephen C. Joseph,
was conducted from October through December of 1996 in those U.S.
regions where TRICARE has been implemented for at least one year.
The survey sought a broad perspective from respondents about
their overall health care, rather than a view of their last
patient encounter. Survey respondents included nearly 8,000
active duty personnel and their adult family members, and retired
military personnel and their adult family members. The survey's
margin of error is plus or minus two percent.
TRICARE brings together the health care resources of the
Army, Navy and Air Force, and supplements them with networks of
civilian health care professionalsviders. TRICARE to
providepromises better access and to high quality servicecare
while maintainingimproving medical flexibility the capability to
support the broad range of military operations.(MORE)
(External Release)
TRICARE Prime Satisfaction Survey Page 2
TRICARE Prime is one of three options under TRICARE and the
only option in which most patients receive the majority of their
health care from military hospitals and clinics. Under Prime,
each patient has is assigned a Primary Care Manager who guides
the patient's total health care program. Prime also
offersprovides extensive preventive care and wellness health
services.
TRICARE was first implemented in the Pacific Northwest
(Region 11), in 1995. Since then it has been implemented by
region, throughout most of the Western U.S., in Hawaii, along the
Gulf Coast and in most of the Southeast U.S.. It is scheduled to
be implemented throughout the remainder of the U.S. by the end of
1997.
Active military personnel receive their health care in
TRICARE Prime, while their family members and military retirees
and their families may select Prime or use one of two other
options, TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra. TRICARE Standard is
the new name for the CHAMPUS program. TRICARE Extra is a program
in which patients may choose to receive their health care from
athe Prime network of civilian health care professionals at a
lesser cost to them than if they chose to use TRICARE Standard.
In both Standard and Extra, all beneficiaries share the cost of
care.
Editors Note: A copy of the survey findings is attached.
Synopsis of TRICARE
Prime Enrollee Satisfaction Study
Regions 6, 9,10,11 & 12
Prepared for the TRICARE Marketing Office
OASD (HA)
February 7, 1997
Prepared by:
Monitor Company
750 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10022
(212) 940-6000
Synopsis: Regions 6, 9, 10, 11 & 12 Satisfaction Study Results
Methodology
OASD(HA) commissioned a telephone survey of TRICARE Prime
Regions 6, 9, 10, 11 & 12 enrollees to measure their knowledge of
and satisfaction with the Prime program. The research was
undertaken among four beneficiary populations: active duty
sponsors, adult dependents of active duty sponsors, retiree
sponsors, and adult dependents of retiree sponsors.
In total, 7728 telephone interviews were conducted across
TRICARE Regions 6, 9, 10, 11 & 12 between 18 October and 8
December, 1996. Of the total number interviewed, 1935 were
active duty sponsors (AD), 1934 adult dependents of active duty
(D/AD), 1922 retiree sponsors (RET), and 1937 adult dependents of
retiree sponsors (D/RET). The telephone interviews averaged 17.5
minutes in length and took place primarily at nights and on
weekends and achieved a 73% cooperation rate (defined as the
total number of interviews completed divided by the number of
interviews plus the number of refusals). All the interviewing
was conducted by a professional telephone research facility using
a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system. The names of
enrollees were taken from lists of enrollees as of 30 September,
1996, provided by DEERS, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina
and Foundation Health Federal Services. All respondents were
informed that they were taking part in a DoD-sponsored survey on
health benefits.
Summary of Regions 6, 9, 10, 11 & 12 Results
Survey results show enrollees' understanding of the TRICARE
Prime program to be quite good, with over two-thirds of all
respondents stating that their understanding is good to
excellent. An even higher percentage of non-active duty (non-AD)
respondents fall within this range, as 76% rate their
understanding as at least good, and 37% find it very good or
excellent. Similarly, respondents feel that the education
campaign to inform enrollees of the TRICARE Prime program is
effective. Sixty-three percent of all respondents and 70% of non-
AD respondents rate the campaign good, very good or excellent,
with 13% of non-AD respondents considering it to be excellent.
Survey results show overall satisfaction with TRICARE Prime
is high, as 67% of all respondents state that they are at least
satisfied, and 22% say they are very satisfied. Satisfaction
rates are slightly higher in the non-AD segment, where 71% of the
respondents express satisfaction with TRICARE Prime, and 26% say
they are very satisfied. Corroborating these high satisfaction
rates, 88% of non-AD enrollees state that they are likely to re-
enroll in TRICARE Prime, with 56% stating they are very likely to
do so. Only 7% report being either unlikely or very unlikely to
re-enroll.
High levels of satisfaction were expressed in regards to all
aspects of TRICARE Prime's service: coverage, cost, information
about covered services, medical care, access and convenience, and
administration. An average of 79% of all respondents rank their
satisfaction with all attributes, in aggregate, as good to
excellent, with 44% of respondents rating their satisfaction
within the very good to excellent range. The attributes ranking
highest in terms of satisfaction are medical care,
administration, and access and convenience. Good to excellent
ratings of 87%, 87% and 81%, respectively, were recorded for
these categories. Twenty-two percent of all respondents, and 26%
of non-AD respondents, find TRICARE Prime's medical care to be
excellent. Poor rankings average just 5% of respondents for all
attributes aggregated.
In considering access to basic health care, the quality of
basic health care and the overall health benefits package before
and after TRICARE Prime, a significant number of respondents see
an improvement in these items after the implementation of TRICARE
Prime. At least a third of all respondents feel that their
access to, and quality of, basic health care have improved, and
39% feel that their overall health benefits package is somewhat
to much better. Only about 12%, on average, feel that there has
been a worsening in these items.
Results of the survey show that TRICARE Prime has performed
well in attempting to fulfill its access standards in terms of
the amount of time enrollees must wait before they are able to
obtain appointments. Eighty-seven percent of all respondents and
85% of non-AD respondents were able to receive assistance within
24 hours for urgent care cases. For minor injuries or illnesses,
almost all of enrollees, 95% of all respondents and of non-AD
respondents, were able to obtain appointments within TRICARE
Prime's seven-day access standard for this treatment category. A
similarly high percentage of respondents, between 98 and 99
percent, seeking care for ongoing conditions and for routine care
received treatment within the mandated 30 days, the standard for
these categories.
Comparison of Regions
Enrollees in the five regions show only very small
differences on key measurements. Region 11 enrollees demonstrate
the best understanding of the program, with 73% saying they have
at least a good understanding, compared to a low of 63% in Region
9. Region 9, however, reports the highest overall satisfaction
at 69%, compared to a low of 63% in Region 10. Re-enrollment
intention is remarkably similar across regions, varying from 87%
to 90%.
