This measure comes from the annual Child Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems (CAHPS) survey, which is a questionnaire developed jointly by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

The survey draws as potential respondents the child members of Vermont Medicaid who were continuously enrolled in the plan for at least 6 months, with no more than one enrollment gap of 45 days or less. From this sample frame, a random sample of 1,650 cases is drawn. 

The red dotted line in the graph above represents the national average for all State Medicaid plans that submitted their results to the CAHPS database. Approximately 2/3 of states submit their annual CAHPS survey results to the national database.

This measure asks survey respondents to think about their child's health care in the last 6 months. When thinking about that overall health care, they are asked to rate it on a scale of 0-10 where 0 is the worst health care possible and 10 is the best health care possible. The rates shown above represent those who answered with a "7, 8, 9, or 10". The survey questions leading up to this overall rating question ask about making appointments for routine check-ups as well as more urgent health care needs (non-emergency). There are also a few questions about overall health such as illness prevention and prescription medications.

Vermont Medicaid's performance on this measure is in line with the national "top box" average for all Medicaid plans.