Insurer Group Rates California HMOS
The Pacific Business Group on Health, a group of large California employers that collectively purchase medical insurance for their workers, earlier this month released its annual evaluation of 18 California HMOs. The HMOs represent roughly 95% of Californians who get medical insurance through their employers.
The report is based on information collected by the California Healthcare Reporting Initiative, a group of employers, medical organizations and health plans that cooperated to produce the study.
The three surveys included in this section look at HMOs and medical groups in Southern California. Information for the charts is based on two main sources: a 1999 statewide survey of 11,000 HMO members’ perception of their health plan, and a 1998 review of 100,000 medical records of HMO patients.
The surveys are best viewed as just one possible measure of an HMO or doctor group’s overall quality. Results do not necessarily mean that a highly rated plan or physician group is more likely to provide top-notch care for your medical condition, or that a lower-rated plan is more likely to provide inferior care.
The charts that appear in this section cover only Southern California. More detailed information, including data on HMOs, doctor groups and hospitals operating throughout the state, is available on the Pacific Business Group’s Web site at https://www.healthscope.com.
One note about the charts: In a few instances, two plans--or medical groups--may have the same numerical score but receive different performance rankings. This is because varying response rates from the health plans and medical groups affect the detection of statistical differences among them.
