Epilogue: Early Lessons from CAHPS™ Demonstrations and Evaluations

Objectives. The Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study (CAHPS™) was developed to provide an integrated set of tested, standardized surveys to obtain meaningful information from health plan enrollees and their experiences. Many organizations began to implement CAHPS™ in 1997. Formal evaluations of the experiences of three demonstration sites with implementing CAHPS™ (ie, process evaluations) and the impact of CAHPS™ on consumer's choices (ie, outcome evaluations) were conducted. This article reports on the early findings and feedback from our process evaluations about the sites' experiences with using CAHPS™. Results are presented from the first round demonstration sites, including the lessons learned during the demonstrations. Our plans for future demonstrations and evaluations are included. Methods. A similar evaluation design and instruments were used across demonstration sites. The process evaluation to monitor program intervention included on-site interviews, off-site review of documents, and focus groups with consumers. Results. There are 4 early results from the CAHPS™ demonstrations: (1) the CAHPS™ survey covers topics of importance to sponsors, is of reasonable length, and can be administered quickly; (2) the report templates are being used effectively, but sponsors vary widely in their preferences for summarizing and presenting CAHPS™ ratings; (3) standardized or off-the-shelf products are aspects of CAHPS™ that sponsors value highly, while emphasizing need for further development; and (4) because surveys like CAHPS™ require multiple within-plan samples to make plan comparisons, they require a substantial investment and may be affordable only for large sponsors. Conclusion. The first round CAHPS™ demonstrations highlighted the strengths of the integrated surveys and the areas for improving the products and the implementation process.