Other Health Care Reports

Quality Improvement

The following reports on quality improvement were developed by the Department of Managed Health Care’s Right Care Initiative (RCI), which focused on the care and prevention of strokes and heart attacks in patients with diabetes and heart disease. These publications analyzed data used in OPA’s Health Care Quality Report Cards to show improvement in cardiovascular care between 2006 – 2012.

• Key Quality Indicators for Cardiovascular Prevention Among California Health Plans (2006-2012)
• ​Right Care Initiative Use of the California Health Care Quality Report Card
• ​Cardio-Protective Medication Bundle Protocol​​
• California Heart Attack, Stroke and Diabetes Care and Prevention – Publicly Available Data​​

Health Care Engagement

Investigating the Intersection Between Health Literacy and Health Plan Efficiency (Executive Summary)​​​

The purpose of this report was to investigate the intersection between health literacy and health plan efficiency. To accomplish this, Health Research for Action (HRA – UC Berkeley School of Public Health) conducted a literature review, analyzed health literacy data from the California Health Information Survey (CHIS), conducted 31 key informant interviews with health plan professionals and advocates, conducted 12 focus groups and 20 usability tests with health plan members, and convened and met with an advisory group. HRA made recommendations based on this research and feedback from the expert advisory​ group.​

Enrollees​

Profiling California’s Health Plan Enrollees​: Large Enrollment in High-Deductible Health Plans
Profiling California’s Health Plan Enrollees: Mental Health Need and Treatment in California​

These fact sheets, produced by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research under contract to the California Office of the Patient Advocate, have findings from a report with a pre-health care reform snapshot of health status and utilization characteristics of Californians who were either enrolled in commercial or public managed care plans or who were uninsured in 2007. Using the data from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), this report provided a detailed profile of demographic characteristics, disease conditions, health status, health care use, and barriers to care among California residents. Among the findings are a high need for certain types of health care, such as mental health services, as well as a growing reliance on high-deductible health plans, especially among the low-income and self-employed.

2006 survey: What Consumers Want to Know About Their HMOs

This policy brief from was based on a survey commissioned by OPA. The statewide random sample survey of 1,224 adult Californians enrolled in HMOs in 2006 was designed, conducted, and analyzed by the Center for Health Improvement, Field Research Corporation, and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Goals of the survey were to:

• Determine the kinds of information HMO enrollees would like to know about their health plan and how it works.
• Identify the sources of information that consumers trust and the sources of information they find most useful. Specifically, the survey sought to understand how consumer information needs vary by source of coverage (employer, Medicare, or Medi-Cal), demographics, and geography.
• Document the changes in consumer experiences since 1997, when a similar survey was conducted.​

Language

Health Policy Brief – Limited English Proficient HMO Enrollees Remain Vulnerable to Communication Barriers Despite Language Assistance Regulations

OPA funded this 2013 policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which found that more than 1.3 million California HMO enrollees ages 18 to 64 did not speak English well enough to communicate with medical providers. The study also found that health plan enrollees with limited English skills reported the poorest health and were more likely to have difficulty understanding their doctors, placing this already vulnerable population at even greater risk.