The National Committee for Quality Assurance has named Harvard Pilgrim Health Care the top-rated private healthcare plan in the United States in its annual rankings, released Sept. 17.
Harvard Pilgrim's New Hampshire affiliate also cracked the top five as the third ranked plan in the nation.
"Harvard Pilgrim continues to top the nation's best health plan rankings by continuously delivering superior customer service and by helping to improve the health of our members," said Eric Schultz, president and CEO of the Wellesley, Mass.-based insurer. "We do this while tightly managing medical and administrative spending and, in fact, we spend nearly 90 cents of every dollar we collect on medical care for our members."
For the 2010-2011 rankings, NCQA officials evaluated more than 300 private health plans and ranked 227 of them based on clinical performance, member satisfaction and NCQA accreditation. To be eligible for rankings, health plans must authorize public release of their performance information and submit enough data for statistically valid analysis.
The "NCQA's Health Insurance Plan Rankings 2010-2011" used the organization's established rankings methodology, which has been used and widely recognized since 2005. Health plans throughout the country were evaluated on issues such as access to care, prevention efforts and treatment of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Plan members were surveyed on their satisfaction, which was used to calculate an overall quality score.
The NCQA's top 10 rated plans for 2010-2011 are:
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care;
- Tufts Associated Health Maintenance Organization of Watertown, Mass.;
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care of New England, of Bedford, N.H.;
- Capital Health Plan of Tallahassee, Fla.;
- Geisinger Health Plan of Danville, Pa.;
- Grand Valley Health Plan of Grand Rapids, Mich.;
- Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, based in Madison, Wis.;
- Fallon Community Health Plan of Worcester, Mass.;
- Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado, based in Denver; and
- Health New England of Springfield, Mass.
The most recent rankings include only managed care organizations, according to NCQA officials. The organization is exploring whether it will compile rankings in 2011 for preferred provider organizations.
The NCQA will release its Medicare and Medicaid rankings on Oct. 21.