Dental care plan assessment using the CAHPS Dental Plan Survey

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Patient-Reported Outcomes
• Dental Insurance

Background:

• Assessing patient experiences is crucial for evaluating healthcare quality.
• Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) provide valuable insights into healthcare delivery.
• The Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Dental Plan Survey is a new tool for this purpose.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance of the CAHPS Dental Plan Survey.
• To determine its utility as a PROM for dental care plans.

Main Methods:

• Surveyed 1,216 individuals with dental insurance using the CAHPS Dental Plan Survey.
• Compared composite and rating scores across dental insurance carriers using ANOVA.
• Analyzed individual scores using multivariate regression with respondent and plan characteristics.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in dental care, access, and dentist ratings were found among carriers.
• Higher scores were associated with older age, higher income, and better self-rated oral health.
• Plan choice and duration with a plan improved ratings, while changing dentists decreased them.

Conclusions:

• The CAHPS instrument effectively captures differences in patient experiences and ratings across dental insurance carriers.
• Findings suggest the survey is a useful tool for assessing patient-reported outcomes in dental care.
• Future comparisons should account for respondent and specific plan characteristics.