California To Issue PPO Report Cards To Help Consumers Compare Health Plans

August 10, 2007 – 10:05 am | posted in Health Insurance

The California Department of Insurance on Monday announced a new health care report card program for six of the state’s largest preferred provider organizations as part of an effort to help consumers compare health plans, the Los Angeles Times reports. State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said the report cards will measure how physicians in each PPO network follow best-practices guidelines, including providing childhood immunizations and giving at-risk patients regular cancer screenings. Physicians also will be rated based on patient satisfaction surveys. In addition, the report cards might include clinical outcomes, which could help determine how well physicians are improving care.

Poizner said details of the new reporting program were being finalized. He added that the program was the first in a series of measures he plans to take to increase oversight of the health insurance industry. The participating insurers are Aetna; Blue Shield of California; Cigna; Health Net; WellPoint; and UnitedHealth Group.

William Shernoff of Shernoff, Bidart & Darras, which specializes in consumer insurance lawsuits, said, “We welcome any involvement on the part of the state to monitor the insurance industry more aggressively, which is something it has long failed to do.” However, Shernoff added that the program “is like a Band-Aid that won’t do anything about problems like insurers denying care or pulling people’s coverage for no reason” (Costello, Los Angeles Times, 8/6).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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