Are You Getting Quality Health Care? A report card on HMO's in California

http://www.opa.ca.gov/report_card/

Health Plans
HMO Ratings At-a-Glance http://www.opa.ca.gov/report_card/hmorating.aspx
four stars Excellent
three stars Good
two stars Fair
one star Poor

Meeting National Standards of Care Members Rate Their HMO
Aetna Health of California Inc. Two stars One star
Blue Cross HMO - CaliforniaCare Two stars Two stars
Blue Shield of California HMO Two stars Three stars
CIGNA HMO Two stars Two stars
Health Net of California, Inc. Three stars Three stars
Kaiser Permanente - Northern California Region Three stars Three stars
Kaiser Permanente - Southern California Region Three stars Three stars
PacifiCare of California Two stars Three stars

State report card: HMOs need to help more with diabetes, obesity
Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, October 18, 2007

California's HMOs and physicians need to do a better job of caring for patients with diabetes, treating obesity and making sure people with mental illnesses get the proper help, according to a state report card released Thursday.

The Health Care Quality Report Card, which rates the state's largest health maintenance organizations and more than 200 medical groups, is designed to give consumers a way to assess the quality of care they receive from their doctors and health maintenance organizations based on surveys of clinical quality and patient satisfaction.

This year, the seventh year the state Office of the Patient Advocate has released the ratings, the study found improvement in some areas, like care for asthma patients, but overall performance did not change dramatically since last year. In other findings:

-- One in three in patients ranked his or her HMO unfavorably.

-- Fewer than 40 percent of obese patients reported being counseled about diet or exercise.

-- About 40 percent of patients with diabetes said they were not screened in the past year for retinal disease, even though diabetics are at much greater risk for eye problems.

While many people in the health care field question the accuracy of health reports cards, these types of ratings have received increasing attention as health care heads toward the top of the domestic political agenda. Improving quality is a key part of many reform packages, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan, mainly because poor quality costs more than proper, timely care.

Consumers also are making complicated decisions involving the quality of their medical


Western Health Advantage Two stars Three stars
Why isn't my health plan listed?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/18/MNSKSS7DI.DTL