Developing a Self-Assessment Toolfor Culturally - Office of Minority ...

initial contact and all follow-up correspondence with the MCOs would be thoroughlydocumented and tracked. Reminder postcards were to be mailed to those respondents who hadnot submitted completed questionnaires two weeks after the requested submission date. If therewas no response within two weeks of the first reminder, up to three follow-up telephone callswould be made to each respondent who still had not submitted a completed questionnaire. Foreach respondent, these calls were to be placed at different times of the day, and voice mailmessages would be left when the option was available. Each follow-up contact would restate theimportance of participation and include an offer to redistribute the questionnaire.Incentives for study participation. During the study’s planning phase, OMH staff exploredseveral potential options that would allow the data submitted by participating MCOs to satisfyexisting reporting requirements related to quality monitoring and improvement. Although thistype of incentive would be ideal for the participating MCOs, such a “deeming” effort could notbe accomplished. Nevertheless, an effort to offer some type of incentive for participation wasneeded, so the introductory letter to each MCO senior executive would state that all participatingMCOs would receive a copy of the study’s Final Report when released. In addition, at therequest of any participating senior executive, copies of their organization’s completedquestionnaires (i.e., raw data) would be provided. The idea for this incentive emerged from theassumption that the organization may use the tool and the actual data submitted for this study forits own monitoring and reporting purposes.Implementation of the MCOs study data collection plan and study results are described inthe study’s Final Report (OMH 2003b).COSMOS Corporation, December 2003 G-9