Relationship between Patient Experience Scores and Health Insurance

(1) Background: the patient experience may be a performance indicator in value-based reimbursement. Accordingly, providers have an incentive to understand factors that affect their patients' experiences. This study evaluated the relationship between health insurance type and patient experience ratings. (2) Methods: individual-level demographic, health/healthcare, and patient experience data were extracted from the Full-Year Consolidated Data File of the 2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys. A logistic regression was used to evaluate whether how persons- included in this study's analytic sample (aged 18 and over with complete covariate information)- rated the healthcare they received from all their providers was associated with their health insurance types controlling for covariates. (3) Results: relative to people 18-64 years of age with private health insurance, people 18-64 years of age without health insurance were less likely to rank their healthcare as a 9 or 10-where a 10 indicates the best possible care-(OR: 0.69; p = 0.015) while people aged 65 years or over with Medicare (OR: 1.34; p = 0.002) or with Medicare/private health insurance (OR: 1.48; p < 0.001) were more likely to rank their healthcare as a 9 or 10. (4) Conclusions: Select health insurance types were associated with how patients rate their healthcare. Stakeholders could use this information to create programs aimed to improve patient experience.