The responses to Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island’s “Project BluePrint” survey, which wrapped up last month, were not nearly as surprising as the number of people who responded. Some 57,123 Rhode Islanders took part in the initial mail survey, which was sent to 350,000 households throughout the state in March. The response rate was 16.3 percent. ”With four pages to fill out and no incentive, we expected a 2 to 3 percent response,” said Michael Sisti, chief communications officer at Blue Cross and executive director of Project BluePrint.
“It is clear that people want to have their voices heard on heath care issues,” said Blue Cross President Ronald Battista.
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Among the survey’s findings;
Respondents who rated their health plan excellent or above average tended to be either 35 years of age or older or have their health insurance paid for entirely by a third party such as an employer or government.
When respondents were asked who or what the federal government should be regulating more or less, 93 percent of respondents said drug companies, 90 percent said health insurers, 76 percent said hospitals and 64 percent said doctors.
Only 16 percent of respondents said they did not understand their own health care plans, while 20 percent said they understood it very well, and 64 percent said fairly well.
When asked if there was another health insurer the respondents would rather have than their present one, 81 percent said no. Of the 19 percent who said yes, 54 percent said RI BC/BS Product, 16 percent said Harvard/Pilgrim, 14 percent said United HC Product, while 14 percent said Government or Other.
“Overall they (the results) were what we expected,” said Sisti. “We knew going into [the survey] that there was a lot of apprehension about health care.” He said it was “not a crisis as the media said,” but that there was a serious amount of concern.
He compared the current state of health care to the rising gas prices.
“Whenever there’s concern like that, people migrate to the government,” he said, noting that 77 percent of those who filled out the survey said that the federal government should be regulating health care more. In a second part to that question 74 percent felt the state government should be doing more.
The survey itself was criticized by some who quickly labeled it as much an expensive public relations effort as a tangible resource for the insurer.
”Anybody that looks at it realistically will see that it was not,” said Sisti. “Everybody has an agenda, so if this program does not agree with other people’s interest, they’ll criticize Blue Cross.”
”I think all companies should attempt to measure the feelings of their customers,” said Hospital Association of Rhode Island President Ed Quinlan, “What made this atypical was how public it was.”
Quinlan continued to discuss the benefits of the forums that Blue Cross has been holding, as a continuation of the Project BluePrint initiative.
“No matter who puts them on, public forums are always helpful,” he said.
”The messages that have been voiced by the public are consistent with the providers,” he said, “but everyone views these issues somewhat differently.”
Quinlan said not as much emphasis has been on the hospitals.
“Consumers aren’t feeling as much distress as the hospitalsthis industry has been in decline for the last five years,” he said, asserting that it wasn’t until Harvard Pilgrim folded its Rhode Island operations that people really took notice. “Harvard Pilgrim meant something to the consumers.”
This is not lost on Sisti.
He spoke of the most recent forum at the Roger Williams Casino. “A lot of the dialogue didn’t favor Blue Cross’s position, ” he said, “but we didn’t try to stifle it. We encouraged it.”
Steve DeToy, a spokesman for the Rhode Island Medical Society, was not aware that the results of Project BluePrint had even been published.
“I think it’s impressive how many people responded, but if you say, ‘give us your opinion within these parameters,’ the results are obviously going to be tailored,” he said. “I don’t even think results is the right word.”
Max Powell, health care consultant and former president and chief executive officer of United HealthCare of New England, expressed similar lack of knowledge and concern on the survey.
“I haven’t seen anything at all,” he said of the results, “I don’t get the impression that this is something the policy-makers are waiting for.”
