What Influences the Awareness of Physician Quality Information? Implications for Medicare

Abstract

Objective: Examine the factors that are associated with awareness of physician quality information (PQI) among older people with one or more chronic illnesses and the implications for Medicare.Data Sources/Study Setting: Random digit-dial survey of adults with one or more chronic illnesses.Research Design: Structural equation modeling to examine factors related to awareness of PQI.Results: Awareness of PQI is low (13 percent), but comparable to findings in general population surveys. Age, race, education, and self-reported health status are associated with PQI awareness. Trust in the Internet as a source of health care information and not trusting one's physician as a source of information both are associated with a greater likelihood of being aware of PQI. Patients with high levels of activation have greater trust in physicians as information sources, but this is not associated with awareness, nor is degree of satisfaction with their care experience. Conclusions: Awareness of PQI among olderpersons with chronic illnesses is relatively low across all socio-economic and demographic subgroups. Changes in population characteristics over time are unlikely to improve awareness in this population, nor are changes in patient activation or satisfaction with care. Medicare would need a broad-based effort if it wishes to raise PQI awareness among Medicare beneficiaries in the near term. Before undertaking resource-intensive efforts to increase awareness, Medicare may want to consider what level of awareness actually is needed to accomplish the overall objective for PQI transparency, which is raising the quality of care received by beneficiaries. It may be that relatively low levels of awareness are sufficient. Keywords

Is Anyone Paying Attention to Physician Report Cards? The Impact of Increased Availability on Consumers’ Awareness and Use of Physician Quality Information

“…First, we extend the existing literature by examining consumers’ awareness and use of PQI using a longitudinal design, the importance of which has been noted in previous studies (Christianson et al. ; Hanauer et al. ).…”

“…The characteristics of consumers may also be associated with the awareness and uses of comparative PQI (Christianson et al. ). We control for two different types of consumer characteristics (health‐related and sociodemographic) in the analysis.…”

“…The literature examining consumers’ awareness and use of publicly available physician quality information (PQI) is limited, given the relative newness of these reports, with some existing evidence suggesting that awareness of PQI is low (Schneider and Epstein ; Abraham, Feldman, and Carlin ; Sinaiko, Eastman, and Rosenthal ; Christianson et al. ; Scanlon et al. ).…”

“…; Abraham, Feldman, and Carlin ; Christianson et al. ). However, all of these studies have examined associations with cross‐sectional designs, and to our knowledge, no study has used longitudinal data to analyze if and how much consumers’ awareness and use of PQI increases in response to the changes in the amount and content of publicly reported PQI.…”

“…The literature examining consumers' awareness and use of publicly available physician quality information (PQI) is limited, given the relative newness of these reports, with some existing evidence suggesting that awareness of PQI is low (Schneider and Epstein 1998;Abraham, Feldman, and Carlin 2004;Sinaiko, Eastman, and Rosenthal 2012;Christianson et al 2014;Scanlon et al 2015). A handful of articles analyzing the factors associated with PQI awareness and/or use have found a number of predictors, including gender, education, chronic illness, self-rated health, communication strategies, size of employer, and propensity to use information (Schneider and Epstein 1998;Farley et al 2002;Abraham, Feldman, and Carlin 2004;Christianson et al 2014). However, all of these studies have examined associations with cross-sectional designs, and to our knowledge, no study has used longitudinal data to analyze if and how much consumers' awareness and use of PQI increases in response to the changes in the amount and content of publicly reported PQI.…”