The National Committee for Quality Assurance, a private non-profit organization, has released its 2010 list of the best health plans for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries throughout the country.
The organization published scorecards for 183 of about 300 Medicare plans, and 104 of about 200 Medicaid plans.
The listing follows a similar release in September in which NCQA rated 223 of about 300 private health plans.
The rankings for government health plan beneficiaries covered by Medicare are:
1. Capital Health Plan
2. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado
3. Fallon Community Health Plan
4. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest
5. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Southern California
6. Security Health Plan of Wisconsin
7. Tufts Associated Health Maintenance Organization
8. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Northern Californiahttp://www.kp.org/
9. MVP Health Care (Rochester Area)
These plans scored between 87.6 and 89 points on 44 items evaluated, such as whether a patient's long-term adherence to medications was well monitored and whether the patient was able to get care easily and quickly.
For Medicaid beneficiaries:
1. Fallon Community Health Plan
2. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Hawaii
3. Neighborhood Health Plan
4. Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan
5. Network Health
6. Capital District Physicians' Health Plan
7. Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island
8. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Islandhttp://www.bcbsri.com/
9. Medica
10. UPMC For You
The top 10 private plans are:
1. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
2. Tufts Associated Health Maintenance Organization
3. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care of New England
4. Capital Health Plan
5. Geisinger Health Plan
7. Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin
8. Fallon Community Health Plan
9. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado
10. Health New England
Ranking criteria included:
- Consumer experience
- Prevention coverage
- Treatment
Consumer experience included results from Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or CAHPS, as well as patient satisfaction with physicians and services.
Prevention scoring relied, in part, on Health Effectiveness Data and Information Set, which includes rates on childhood and adolescent immunizations, measures reflecting care for women's reproductive health and cancer screenings and children and adolescents access to primary and preventive visits.
Treatment scoring was based on how well the plan's providers managed patients' conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, alcohol and drug dependence, mental illness and whether physicians advised smokers to quit.
NCQA, which began releasing these scorecards in 2005, says that organizations are eligible for rankings if they authorized that their performance information could be publicly released and if they submit enough data for valid statistical analysis.
For a complete list of the NCQA rankings, click here.