Case Study

Vermont Health Connect Customer Satisfaction and Experience Evaluation

Situation

In 2014, Vermont Health Connect (VHC) selected UMass Medical School to conduct a customer satisfaction and experience evaluation for the state of Vermont’s health insurance marketplace. Specific objectives of the evaluation were to:

  • Gain an in-depth understanding of the VHC customer experience during the second open enrollment period, which occurred between November 2014 and February 2015
  • Identify areas where VHC is performing well in serving its customers
  • Identify areas where VHC can improve in delivering a high-quality customer experience

Solution

UMass Medical School worked closely with the VHC research team and key stakeholders to develop a survey that best addressed their multitude of information needs while enabling comparison with other national instruments.

  • Key topic areas included customer experience on the VHC website, experience with the customer support center, selecting a health insurance plan, cancellation or loss of health insurance, enrollment in dental plans, health insurance literacy, and overall perceptions of VHC.
  • We surveyed both Medicaid and Qualified Health Plan enrollees.
  • A total of 6,000 enrollees were sampled using several geo-demographic variables to ensure correct representation of the customer population.
  • The survey employed three modes of data collection: mail, online via PC/smart phone/tablet, and telephone.
  • We achieved a high response rate of 43%, yielding 2,569 completed surveys which were subsequently weighted to yield representative estimates.
  • We prepared a wide array of deliverables and presented the findings to VHC management and key stakeholders.

Results

Survey results clearly identified the areas where VHC performed well in serving its customers as well as areas where improvements are needed. VHC and its partners are using the survey results to improve enrollee experience with the health insurance marketplace. For additional details on the survey, including an executive summary and full report, visit http://info.healthconnect.vermont.gov/2015Evaluation.