Arlington, VA — While America continues to seek solutions to the need for low-cost, high-quality healthcare, the US Family Health Plan—a Department of Defense program with history of delivering high quality, patient-centered care to uniformed services families— has again garnered exemplary member satisfaction ratings, according to the final report of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Survey.  The US Family Health Plan, the only fixed price, value-based capitated care program in the Military Health System, has achieved a 2015 aggregate member satisfaction rating of 91.5 percent:  over 25 points higher on a 100-point scale than the national average for satisfaction with commercial health plans.  That’s when compared to the 201 plans documented in the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) 2015 Quality Compass Report.

Based on the report, 66.1 percent of health plan members nationally report high satisfaction with their plans (rating them an 8, 9 or 10 on a scale of 1-10). By contrast, a whopping 91.5 percent of US Family Health Plan members report high satisfaction with their plan.  The overall objective of the CAHPS® study is to capture accurate and complete information about consumer-reported experiences with health care.

The independent CAHPS® assessment of 4,782 US Family Health Plan members employed the most widely used set of performance metrics in the managed care industry to measure performance on important dimensions of care and service.   It assesses member satisfaction in areas such as claims processing, customer service and getting needed care quickly.

“The US Family Health Plan’s national member satisfaction scores once again exceed the benchmark in all rating areas for the core population, including survey respondents of all ages,” said Debbie Vereb, Executive Vice President, Operations at SPH Analytics, an NCQA-certified HEDIS survey vendor that administered the study of the health plan members.  “US Family Health Plan members report significantly higher satisfaction with customer service, getting needed care, getting care quickly, coordination of care, and how well their doctors communicate with them.”

The US Family Health Plan, a comprehensive healthcare plan, offers the full TRICARE Prime benefit to more than 145,000 military beneficiaries, including active-duty family members, activated National Guard and Reserve family members, and military retirees and their family members.

Linda Marzano, Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Medical Centers and chairman of the US Family Health Plan Alliance board of directors, said, “We are committed to delivering high value to military beneficiaries and to the Department of Defense by focusing on the needs of our members and engaging them in programs to keep them healthy.  Through the use of population health and disease management programs, our goal is to help our members to live healthy lifestyles and minimize their chances of developing chronic conditions.  Our fixed price contracts ensure that DOD and the taxpayers pay no more than any other source of care while beneficiaries are protected from high co-pays and deductibles though medical management.  For us, it’s about the people. We believe our military families deserve the best care we can provide — it’s that simple.”

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About the US Family Health Plan:

An integral part of health care provided to uniformed services dependents and retirees since 1981, the US Family Health Plan program is part of the Military Health System, offering the TRICARE Prime benefit in 16 states and the District of Columbia.  The US Family Health Plan was the first and remains the only true population health/value-based care model in the Military Health System.   The six fully accredited, community-based health care systems, known as designated providers, include Brighton Marine Health Center, CHRISTUS Health, Johns Hopkins Health Care, Martin’s Point Health Care, Pacific Medical Centers, and St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers.

Note to Editors:  CAHPS® is a registered trademark of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).