The study involved “secret shoppers” who acted as patients wishing to schedule primary care appointments. In June and July of 2015, the “secret shoppers” called 743 physicians in five California regions who were noted as primary care physicians in their health plans’ online directories. The researchers zoned in on Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross health plans.
Health Affairs published the study.
Here are six insights:
1. The callers successfully scheduled primary care appointments less than 30 percent of the time.
2. The desired physicians did not work with the noted medical group nearly 10 percent of the time,
3. About 30 percent of the time, the physicians’ specialties were incorrectly listed on the directory.
4. Callers experienced unreturned calls or disconnected calls in about 20 percent of the cases.
5. The researchers concluded accessing primary care physicians was “generally equally challenged both inside and outside” of Covered California.
6. In response to the study, Anthem completed about 19,000 revisions to its provider database in the third quarter of 2015. Blue Shield completes thousands of updates to its provider database monthly.
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