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Blue Access for Producers

Consumerism, Transparency Enhanced with New Zagat® Health Survey for Members

When consumers are looking for a physician, they often rely on recommendations from their friends, family or other trusted sources. Now, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) is making members' recommendations and feedback available to fellow members through the Zagat Health Survey.

By providing the Zagat Health Survey, BCBSIL is helping to meet consumers' requests for more information, while continually improving the member experience. BCBSIL will provide access for its health plan members to the Zagat Health Survey through an arrangement with WellPoint, which currently makes the Zagat Health Survey available to members in many of its affiliated health plans.

"Zagat is widely known and trusted for its ability to help people share and learn from other consumer experiences. By working with them, we are able to create a trusted resource for our members that will actively engage them in sharing and using that information," says Steve Hamman, BCBSIL's Vice President of Provider Networks. "We are committed to providing our members with useful information to better help them navigate the health care system, along with other quality and cost transparency resources."

Rating Physicians on the Member Experience

The Zagat Health Survey allows members to review physicians based on their experience with a physician, not the quality of care received. The criteria for the review are:

  • Trust — belief in the doctor's approach
  • Communication — doctor's bedside manner, responsiveness and rapport
  • Availability — ease of getting office visits and whether the doctor is on time
  • Environment — condition of the office, staff helpfulness, atmosphere and amenities

Members can also say whether they would recommend their doctors and share comments.

How the Survey Works

  • Your employees can log in to Blue Access for MembersSM and access the Provider Finder to search for their doctor.
  • On the bottom of the Provider Details page, they will see a Zagat Health Survey box on the screen in addition to other information about the provider.
  • If they (or their dependent) have received services from the physician, they may select Add Your Review to rate the provider.

For each network physician, the Zagat Health Survey will display contact information, ratings on a 30-point scale for each of the four categories, and the percentage of members who recommend that physician. The most recent comments will be displayed first, with the option to view all comments. In order for a provider's scores in each of the categories and recommendation to be displayed, the provider must have at least 10 reviews in the system.

A Commitment to Empowering Members

The Zagat Health Survey can help members manage their health benefits and their health care, while becoming more engaged and better-informed health care consumers in the process.

In addition to the Zagat Health Survey, members can also review BCBSIL's Blue StarSM Hospital Report and Blue StarSM Medical Group/IPA Report to help choose providers who best meet their needs. The reports list contracting network providers who have earned "blue stars" based on meeting or exceeding performance targets on a variety of patient care, safety and quality measures.

We encourage you to tell your clients about the new Zagat Health Survey.


Zagat Survey, LLC, is a separate company, and the member comments posted on the site do not represent the views or opinions of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois.

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