Data Collection

The survey project was managed by DataStat Inc., an NCQA-certified vendor, which was chosen from among several vendors who submitted proposals for this project. Two separate groups of children were included in the survey project. General Child Enrollees were drawn from the sample of all eligible children enrolled in the HMO or health plan. This sample included all children aged 0 to 17 who had been enrolled with the health plan for a specified time period (12 months for commercial plans, 6 months for Medicaid and CHIP plans). The second group of children, Children with Chronic Conditions (CCC), is a population of children who have special health care needs. Three samples of CCC children were selected from overall commercial, Medicaid, and CHIP populations. The survey vendor selected a random sample from each health plan’s enrollment database. Selected enrollees were mailed a survey questionnaire in February of 2008 and sent a reminder if they did not return the survey within two weeks. Follow-up phone calls with members who did not return a survey were conducted in April of 2008. A total of 1325 enrollees in commercial health plans, 1857 enrollees in Medicaid health plans, and 1327 parents of enrollees in CHIP health plans answered the survey.

CAHPS was developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and is used annually by HMOs and health plans nationwide. The health services research arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), complementing the biomedical research mission of its sister agency, the National Institutes of Health.