Have the performances of Dutch health plans changed over the years? A comparison with the Consumer Quality Index Health Care and Health Insurer.

Background: Many countries have introduced some form of managed competition in their health care system. To choose the health care provider or health plan that best fits their needs, consumers need comparative quality information. In the Netherlands, consumer quality index (CQI) questionnaires are used to assess the quality of care from consumers’ perspective. The CQI health care and health insurer has been administered for several years now. An important question is whether this questionnaire and is able to monitor changes in consumers’ experiences over the years. Methods: Consumers were asked to fill in the CQI health care and health insurer. In 2005, 13 819 respondents of 30 health plans filled in the questionnaire. In 2006, 8 266 respondents of 32 health plans returned the questionnaire. For 2007, 34 health plans have been requested to select addresses of 750 consumers each. Results: Only the results of 2005 and 2006 are yet available. Multilevel analyses were used to compare experiences with the health plans. In both 2005 and 2006, experiences with the service of health plans differed between health plans (all X2s > 5.19, Ps < .05). In general, the belonging intra-class correlations (ICC) increased from 2005 to 2006. Concerning provided health care, only in 2005 the accessibility of care differed slightly between health plans 2 = 4.31, P < .05). The results of 2007 will be added and direct comparisons over the years will be made. Conclusions: Preliminary results revealed that health plans mainly differed concerning the service they provide and that these differences increased from 2005 to 2006. The upcoming results of 2007 will reveal whether these differences have increased further and whether also differences concerning the provided health care have emerged. CQI questionnaires appear to be a useful tool to monitor changes in the provided health care seen from consumers’ perspective. (aut. ref.