Government
OIG survey finds Medicare hotline problems
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 15, 2007
Customer satisfaction with the telephone hotline that Medicare uses to answer questions has declined in the past several years, according to the Dept. of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.
OIG conducted a survey of more than 200 people who called 800-MEDICARE in January. Only 71% of those who completed the calls reported that they were satisfied with the service they received, compared with 84% who reported satisfaction in a similar survey in 2004. Roughly one in five callers in 2007 said they hung up before receiving answers to their questions because the hold times were too long.
OIG said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should consider spending more money to improve automated answering technology or hire additional customer service representatives. The office also noted that CMS had been using two private contractors to administer the hotline when the survey was conducted but is now using only one of them.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/10/15/gvbf1015.htm.
