Medicaid recipients' experiences under mandatory managed care

To describe Medicaid recipients' experiences with the outcomes of access, quality, and satisfaction in a mandatory managed care (MC) program.

A qualitative case study design with content analysis of narrative focus group (FG) data, which was part of a comprehensive program evaluation that also involved pre- and postsurveys and analyses of cost and utilization data.

Six FG interviews were conducted in the autumn of 1997 with 31 women on the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. Participants were recruited from a randomly ordered list of women who had responded to a 1996 premanaged care survey regarding their or their child's healthcare experiences under traditional Medicaid.

There was general consensus across all focus groups on a range of issues, including improvements in access to primary care and continuity of care. Overall, few participants expressed discontent with restriction of choice of provider and on MC policies regarding use of the emergency room. There was no consensus on what factors influenced choice of MC plan, although convenience of location was named most frequently. An unanticipated outcome was the recurrent theme across all focus groups of disrespectful treatment by healthcare personnel, especially under traditional Medicaid, which had declined somewhat under managed care.

These contextual accounts identify specific features of a mandatory Medicaid MC program that are viewed as improvements over traditional Medicaid. Specific features that were dissatisfying can be addressed to improve both enrollee satisfaction and the transition to managed care for Medicaid recipients.