0990-PatientPerspective_App D1 Physician Practice Advance Letter

Draft – Advance Letter to Physician Practices

PRINTED ON ONC LETTERHEAD

[PRACTICE NAME]

[ADDRESS]

[CITY][STATE][ZIP]

[DATE]

Dear Practice Manager:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is conducting a study to better understand the likely role that the Health Information Technology Act may play in fostering patient-centered medical care. The goal of the research is to assess patients’ experiences and perceptions of the delivery of health care services by primary care providers who are in varying stages of adopting and using electronic health records.

ONC has contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, an independent research company, to conduct a survey and focus groups with patients from 84 randomly selected primary care practices in four states. Your practice was selected at random to represent other primary care practices in your state. A Mathematica representative will call you in the coming week to describe the study in more detail, answer any questions you may have, and request your practice’s participation. Practices that agree to participate in the study will receive $200.

Participation will involve allowing a Mathematica representative to visit your practice for one to two days, talk with patients in the waiting room about the study, and invite them to either complete a 15-minute self-administered questionnaire or to join a 90-minute discussion group. Patients who participate in the survey or discussion groups will receive a gift card ($10 for the survey and $40 for the discussion group). The information gathered from the surveys and discussion groups will be kept confidential; no individual responses will be shared outside the research team and only aggregated responses will be reported.

Enclosed is a fact sheet that provides more information about the study and what your practice’s participation will involve. If you have any further questions about the study, your rights as a study site, or your patients’ rights as study participants, please contact Karen Bogen, the Mathematica Survey Director, at 617-674-8355 or by email at kbogen@mathematica-mpr.com.

We appreciate your considering this request.

Sincerely,

Privacy Officer

D.3