A new ranking of America’s health plans rates Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island’s BlueCHiP for RIte Care as the best Medicaid plan in the nation, with UnitedHealthcare of New England’s RIte Care plan and Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island not far behind, ranked third and sixth, respectively.
The ranking, produced by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and U.S. News & World Report, also gives relatively high scores to Blue Cross’s BlueCHiP for Medicare – 18th out of 131 rated – and to BlueCHiP Coordinated Health Plan – 29th out of 257.
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United’s Medicare HMO ranked 51st, and its commercial plans ranked 100th. Neighborhood does not offer Medicare or commercial plans.
Tufts Health Plan, which covers some Rhode Islanders, was ranked fourth for its commercial plans. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which left the state years ago because it was losing money, was ranked No. 1 in the nation.
The ratings are based on several factors, including members’ access to care, overall satisfaction, members’ rating of their personal doctor or nurse, and specific preventive care measures and treatment protocols, such as how many children and adolescents are getting the necessary immunizations, and how many women get mammograms and Pap smears.
Blue Cross did best on access to care, with 87.9 percent of members saying they got the care they needed (higher even than Harvard’s 85.8 percent), but worst on overall member satisfaction, 79.5 percent (Harvard had 87.4 percent, while United had 74.5 percent).
Blue Cross was above the national averages on all the prevention and treatment measures listed, while United fell below the averages on two measures: managing blood pressure (63.3 percent, compared with the national average of 66.8 percent) and cholesterol checks (81.1 percent, compared with an average of 81.8 percent).
The NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to assessing and reporting on the quality of managed-care plans. Its mission is to provide information to help purchasers and consumers to distinguish among plans based on quality and value, not just price.
The full ranking is at www.usnews.com.
