The California Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) contracts with 25 health plans to provide coverage for over 360,000 active and retired state and public employees. Adding family members, that total comes to over 850,000 people.

By state law, part of the responsibility of PERS' Board of Administration is to periodically evaluate the level of member satisfaction with the various health plans. This serves three purposes. One, it helps PERS evaluate the health benefits program and assists in rate negotiations with health plans. Two, it identifies service areas needing attention. Three, it aids PERS members in choosing a health plan that meets their needs. (Each May, during an open enrollment period, members may select a different health plan.)

The most recent evaluation effort was the 1991 Consumer Experience Survey, which was sent in September of 1991 to over 20,000 health plan enrollees.

The cover letter included with the questionnaire stated the purpose of the survey: "PERS has recently completed this year's open enrollment period for health care plans. If you considered changing plans, you know the choices can be difficult. We try to provide members with as much comparative information as possible to help you make the best decision. We believe it would be even more valuable for you to know how other enrollees judge these health plans based on their actual experience. In order to do this, we are asking you, and other PERS enrollees, what your health plan experience has been during the last year."

The questionnaire touched on several topics, including:

The questionnaire design and testing for the 1991 Consumer Experience Survey was lengthy and thorough, due in large part to the scope of the project.

The survey's final report states: "In designing this study, one important factor was to create a series of questions which would best capture the experience and opinions of PERS h...