HHS: Mystery shoppers to assess physician availability
The Department of Health and Human Services is borrowing a customer service strategy in its proposal to use a “mystery shopper” approach to assess primary care physician (PCP) availability to accept new patients and the timeliness of services for them.
“The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is requesting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval to use the mystery shopper approach to collect data from PCP offices to gain insight into the precise reasons that PCP availability is lacking,” according to an April 28 posting in the Federal Register. A 60-day public comment period is under way.
The ASPE will contact 465 PCPs in nine states. Each PCP’s office will be contacted twice: once using a privately insured patient scenario, and once using a publicly insured patient scenario. The scenarios will simulate requests for an appointment with the PCP from a new patient with both public or private insurance and either an urgent medical concern or routine exam appointment.
A standard protocol will accompany each patient scenario, ensuring that the key research questions are addressed and the necessary standardized information from the calls is collected, according to the proposal.
In addition, 465 PCPs across the nine states will be contacted a third time using a direct questioning approach. These physicians will be informed about the study and asked directly if they are accepting new patients and how long it would take to obtain an appointment. “The purpose of this additional data collection component is to evaluate the validity of the mystery shopper approach in generating accurate estimates of physician availability and timeliness of services,” the proposal states.
Data collection activities will be completed within four months of OMB clearance.
“The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is requesting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval to use the mystery shopper approach to collect data from PCP offices to gain insight into the precise reasons that PCP availability is lacking,” according to an April 28 posting in the Federal Register. A 60-day public comment period is under way.
The ASPE will contact 465 PCPs in nine states. Each PCP’s office will be contacted twice: once using a privately insured patient scenario, and once using a publicly insured patient scenario. The scenarios will simulate requests for an appointment with the PCP from a new patient with both public or private insurance and either an urgent medical concern or routine exam appointment.
A standard protocol will accompany each patient scenario, ensuring that the key research questions are addressed and the necessary standardized information from the calls is collected, according to the proposal.
In addition, 465 PCPs across the nine states will be contacted a third time using a direct questioning approach. These physicians will be informed about the study and asked directly if they are accepting new patients and how long it would take to obtain an appointment. “The purpose of this additional data collection component is to evaluate the validity of the mystery shopper approach in generating accurate estimates of physician availability and timeliness of services,” the proposal states.
Data collection activities will be completed within four months of OMB clearance.