CMS Names Medicare Advantage Plan Stars

This year CMS looked at 563 health plans and awarded five stars to only 15 Medicare health plans:

• Dean Health Plan (Wisconsin),
• Group Health Plan (Minnesota and Wisconsin),
• Group Health Cooperative (Washington),
• Gunderson Lutheran Health Plan (Iowa and Wisconsin);
• Health New England (Massachusetts);
• Humana (Wisconsin);
• Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Ohio, the Middle Atlantic states, and the Northwest);
• Medical Associates Clinic Health Plan (Washington);
• Medical Associates Health Plan (Iowa and Illinois)

A five-star designation is coveted and rare; only a dozen out of 446 plans achieved it in 2011. The plans have a combined total of about 1.2 million members.