State-by-State List of HMO Report Cards Online
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2003-08-07 10:11:26
More than half of all states have developed their own HMO report cards or list complaint-related information to help consumers compare the performance of competing health plans in your area.
States vary in the types of quality-related managed care plan information they make available on their websites. If your state doesn't produce its own HMO report card or you find the information lacking, you can still give your local health plan a checkup. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)—a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to assessing and reporting on the quality of managed care plans—grades health plans nationally. While you can compare health plans on NCQA's site, you'll be able to see plan information only for those entities that have gained NCQA accreditation. Not all health plans are accredited.
Also, the federal government puts out health plan performance report cards on Medicare health plans. And federal government workers and retirees can check out quality measures of health plans contracting with the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Check out FEHBP guides here. Meanwhile, use the drop-down menu below, or scroll down this page to find links to the managed care comparison data that's available online for your state.
(Note: Many of the links on this page lead to files that appear in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in to view them. Download the Reader for free now if necessary.)
For additional health plan quality comparisons of Virginia HMOs, check out the the NCQA's Health Plan Report Card, which compares accredited plans in the state. You can search by zip code or by state and select types of health plans. The site compares only health plans that the organization has accredited (see the site's explanation of health-plan participation) and it describes how to use the NCQA report card results.
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Washington
Washington does not have an HMO report card, but it does offer a Complaint Ratio to 2004 Premium Volume for health care plans in the state. Washington State's Medicaid program, however, offers detailed information about consumer's assessments of health plan performance. To find the most recent report, go to Washington State Medicaid: Client Satisfaction Survey Results.
For more in-depth health plan quality comparisons of Washington State HMOs, check out the NCQA's Health Plan Report Card, which compares accredited plans in the state. You can search by zip code or by state and select types of health plans. The site compares only health plans that the organization has accredited (see the site's explanation of health-plan participation) and it describes how to use the NCQA report card results.
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West Virginia
West Virginia does not produce its own HMO report card, but you can read about health plans in the state via the NCQA's Health Plan Report Card. You can search for health plans to compare by zip code or by state, and you can ask the tool to compare only certain types of health plans—for instance, only Medicare HMOs or only PPOs or all types of plans at once. The site explains how to use the NCQA report card results.
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Wisconsin
Wisconsin offers an HMO Quality and Consumer Satisfaction Data report, which contains some HMO quality and consumer satisfaction data on eight important indicators. The state also has a guide called Managed Care Health Plans in Wisconsin, which offers complaint data on each insurance company operating in the state.
The State Medicaid program offers in-depth information about HMO quality and performance. Among the most helpful reports for consumers is the HMO specific performance report, Wisconsin Medicaid and BadgerCare HMO Report Card.
The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality offers an interactive search engine where you can view health care quality measures by health plan or type of provider, clinical topic or institute of medicine category.
For more HMO performance data in Wisconsin, use the NCQA's Health Plan Report Card, which compares accredited plans in the state. You can search by zip code or by state and select types of health plans. The site compares only health plans that the organization has accredited (see the site's explanation of health-plan participation) and it describes how to use the NCQA report card results.
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Wyoming
The Wyoming Insurance Department offers a Composite of Consumer Complaint Data 1999 - 2003 describing the complaint ratio data on each insurance company operating in the state. For information on how to choose Medigap insurance, go to 2005 Wyoming Buyer's Guide to Medicare Supplement "Medigap" Insurance.
As of late 2005, the NCQA had not listed a Wyoming health plan as accredited but to check if there is new information, check the NCQA's New Health Plan Accreditation Status List and the NCQA's Health Plan Report Card. You can search for health plans to compare by zip code or by state, and you can ask the tool to compare only certain types of health plans—for instance, only Medicare HMOs or only PPOs or all types of plans at once. The site explains how to use the NCQA report card results. To understand how the NCQA applies accreditation, look at its explanation of health-plan participation.
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