Unheard voices: complaint patterns of older persons in the health care system

To examine the patterns and prevalence of complaints about health services among older clients of Health Maintenance Organizations
(HMOs), explore demographic correlates, and compare results with the patterns in the younger population. Primary data were
collected from the responses of subjects who participated in two national phone surveys, conducted in Israel over a period
of 2 years. The final sample included 372 participants aged 65 and older, and 796 younger persons, who believed they had reasons
to complain about their HMO. Of the 372 participants with cause to complain, only 23% had actually complained. Subjects who
were 75-years-old and above, with below-average income, had 2.5 times higher probability for not complaining than people under
65. No statistically significant differences were found between the older participants and younger participants regarding
the reasons for complaints or the procedures for making them. Recommendations are made for the recognition of older persons
as a unique group within the health care system and for developing organizational mechanisms for capturing their unheard voices
by HMOs.