Baseline Evaluation of the Purchaser's Guide to Clinical Preventive Services

Goals/Objectives: The University of Washington, in collaboration with the CDC and the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), evaluated the effectiveness of the Purchaser's Guide to Clinical Preventive Services: Moving Science into Coverage (the Guide). The evaluation: 1) described NBGH member characteristics and their coverage of 25 selected preventive services; and 2) assessed the Guide's dissemination and use by NBGH members.

Methods: Of the 198 NBGH members, 106 companies agreed to participate in the evaluation, and 83(78%) completed the survey about their company's use of the Guide, and about selected preventive benefits offered through their company's largest self-insured health plan. A score was calculated to summarize the extent to which a company's health plan benefits met the Guide's recommendations.

Results: Of the 106 companies, 58(55%) remembered receiving the Guide and 36(34%) had used it to plan benefits. Most companies rated the Guide's quality “above average”, but frequently mentioned that the Guide was too long. Companies' preventive benefits scores ranged from 28% to 74% (mean=55%). Benefits offered varied by company size, profitability, and general health plan richness. Coverage for diabetes had the highest average score and tobacco had the lowest.

Conclusions and Implications: Companies surveyed had average (55%) coverage of selected preventive benefits. Baseline results will be used for improving the second version of the Guide, testing a customized dissemination of the Guide for randomly selected companies, and examining company benefit changes over time. It is expected that increased access to preventive benefits will result in improved health for employees.