Their rates may be somewhat low, but Blues plans tend to pay on time and can be trusted, a survey of health system executives found. Not so for other large insurers.
The communications strategy company Revive Health has been probing health system executives' views on their payers for eight years now, and has found a bit of a trend.
UnitedHealthcare "has created difficult relationships with hospitals of all sizes," while "Blue Cross plans are seen as prompt and accurate when it comes to paying claims, despite the fact that their payment rates are miserably low" and Aetna, notwithstanding administrative challenges, "is seen as a good payer as it relates to rates."
This year, the survey asked 203 health system executives a new question: How much do you trust your payers?
For some, the survey shows "dismal levels of trust between critical players in the healthcare industry," wrote study authors at Revive Health and partners Catalyst Healthcare Research.
The survey asked health system leaders to score on a scale of 1 to 100 their trust of payers on three metrics: effort to honor commitments, accuracy and honesty in "representing itself and its intentions," and balancing "its interests with ours," in other words reliability, honesty and fairness.
Scoring in the top half of the eight insurers ranked, with composite scores above 50 and above the average of 53, are Cigna (scoring 63), independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield nonprofits (59), Aetna subsidiary Coventry (58) and Aetna (56.5).
In the bottom half, getting lower ranks, are WellPoint (50.7), Humana (50), the BlueCard, for travelling Blue Cross members (47) and UnitedHealthcare (40.7).
When health system executives, including CEOs, CFOs and managed care directors, were asked who they thought patients trust the most, independent Blue cross and Blue Shield plans scored the highest, with 66 percent ranking Blues at the top. Asked who they think patients trust the least, 47 percent pointed to United.
However, there is still some variability in terms of provider executives' views and experiences.
Thirty-seven of those surveyed ranked independent Blue Cross plans as the best overall in working with hospitals, but 11 percent rated it the worst, while 42 percent submitted UnitedHealthcare as the worst for dealing with hospitals, but six percent said it is the best.
Likewise, just under half ranked independent Blues as most prompt payers, even as eight ranked them as the tardiest. Just under one-third considered United to be the most chronically tardy, even as 10 percent ranked it as the best.
And, further suggesting that location may be one of the largest factors driving the experiences between payers and providers, about quarter of respondents considered the independent Blues to have the highest physician reimbursement rates -- and about as much considered them to have the lowest.