New Englan and the Great Lakes regions hold strong in health insurer customer satisfaction, prevention, and treatment.
States with top-performing health insurance plans continued to deliver in 2017, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) latest ratings.
Under a methodology that debuted last year, NCQA studied 1,429 health plans and rated 1,062, including 498 private (commercial), 386 Medicare, and 178 Medicaid. The ratings, which use a system similar to CMS Star Ratings of Medicare Advantage plans, focus on three broad performance categories: consumer satisfaction, prevention, and treatment.
The 10 top-rated states (receiving at least a 4.5 out of 5) within NCQA’s Health Insurance Plan Ratings 2017–2018 are as follows:
- Massachusetts
- Rhode Island
- Maine
- New Hampshire
- Wisconsin
- Minnesota
- Hawaii
- New York
- Vermont
- Iowa
Over the past three years, there’s been very little movement within the top 10 states except for Iowa and Hawaii, which in 2015 were 12th and 11th, respectively, and moved into the top 10 in 2016 and 2017.
What’s more, extreme ratings are rare. Of the 1,062 rated plans, 103 (10%) received a top rating of 4.5 or 5.0 out of 5. Twenty-three (2%) earned the ratings of 1.0 to 2.0, NCQA noted.
Consumers can also get a deeper look into any part of the ratings to learn how a health plan handles particular health issues or patient populations.
Debra Shute is the Senior Physicians Editor for HealthLeaders Media.