Health and loyalty promotion visits for new enrollees: results of a randomized controlled trial

Managed care needs effective and efficient ways to orient new members, enha nce trust and loyalty, and offer prevention and self-care education and ser vices. Recent adult enrollees of Kaiser Permanente (Northern California) we re randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions (n = 286) (ind ividual visit with a physician, physician visit plus a visit with a health educator, a group visit of eight new members led by a physician and health educator) or a random control group (n = 278). Outcomes were gauged via pre - and post-visit questionnaires and a 20-min telephone survey at baseline a nd at a 6-month follow-up. Compared to controls, attendees of the three int erventions had higher satisfaction, self-rated prevention knowledge, accept ance of health plan guidelines, and were more likely to plan to remain in t he health plan. Group visit attendees stood out as experiencing the greates t benefits and were especially likely to report saving a telephone call or visit to their doctor by using a self-care handbook. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scie nce ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.