Winter 2017

The annual Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS^®) survey asks members to report on and evaluate their experiences with health care. The results of this survey help pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in members’ experiences with practice sites and individual physicians.

Included in the survey are the following questions related to medical assistance with smoking and tobacco use cessation:

• Does the member currently smoke or use tobacco?
• Has the member been advised to quit by a provider?
• Did a provider discuss and recommend medication to help quit tobacco use?
• Did a provider discuss or provide methods and strategies to quit?

Overall results from the 2017 CAHPS survey show that 79.46% of members who use tobacco were advised to quit, 59.39% discussed cessation medications, and 52.89% discussed cessation strategies with a provider. These findings were driven by progress in this area among the Rhody Health Partners population of adults with disabilities and Medicaid Expansion adults.

Providers are doing a great job asking patients about tobacco use, advising them to quit, and providing them with information regarding tobacco cessation and resources where they can receive assistance with quitting tobacco use.  Continuing these efforts will only increase the health and wellness of our members.

Ongoing provider efforts in the area of tobacco cessation, such as those sponsored by Care Transformation Collaborative Rhode Island (CTC-RI) are appreciated as well as providers’ continued use of Neighborhood’s Quit for Life tobacco cessation program. If you would like to refer your Neighborhood patients to the Quit for Life program you can have them call Neighborhood Member Services at 1-800-459-6019.

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