Clinical Excellence

November 7, 2008

Kaiser Permanente Health Plans Receive High Rankings on 'America's Best Health Plans™'

Kaiser Permanente has four of the top 50 commercial health care plans in the nation, according to a joint ranking by U.S. News & World Report and the National Committee for Quality Assurance. The Nov. 17 issue, "America's Best Health Plans™," ranked the nation's top commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid health plans based on clinical quality data, member satisfaction and NCQA accreditation scores.

In the commercial category, Kaiser Permanente Georgia ranked 27th out of 239 health plans, Colorado ranked 42nd, Northern California ranked 48th, and the Northwest Region held the 50th position on the list. Each of these plans also has the distinction of ranking number 1 in their regions. Kaiser Permanente's Mid-Atlantic and Southern California regions both scored in the top 100 in the 86th and 100th position respectively, and ranked number 2 in their regions — Southern California finished behind the number 1 Northern California Region.

All of Kaiser Permanente's regions ranked among the Medicare top 50 plans and Southern California earned top distinctions with a spot on the honor roll from U.S. News and World Report, ranking second in the top five plans. The other regions all finished within the top 50 plans — Colorado ranked 8th, Northern California ranked 12th, Mid-Atlantic States ranked 13th, Hawaii ranked 14th, Northwest ranked 20th, Ohio ranked 35th and Georgia held the 37th position out of 150 nationally ranked health plans.

The Hawaii Region achieved an honorable mention on the top ranked list of Medicaid plans by achieving the 5th position of the top five plans. Other Kaiser Permanente regions are not required to report data on all the measures used to assess the Medicaid plan and were therefore unranked in this category.

The basis for the US News & World Report rankings is data collected, analyzed and converted to scores from zero to 100 by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. The three reporting categories include consumer experience, prevention and treatment.

"We are very proud of our performance in this year's health plan rankings," said Alide Chase, senior vice president of Quality and Patient Safety for Kaiser Permanente. Chase added, "With these numbers, we know that we are on the right track. Our online personal health records, My Health Manager, combined with our innovative evidence-based medicines findings, help us to bring the best quality of care and quality of life to our members."

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is America's leading integrated health care delivery system. Founded in 1945, it is a group practice prepayment program headquartered in Oakland, California. Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of more than 8.6 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. It encompasses the not-for-profit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries, and the Permanente Medical Groups. Nationwide, Kaiser Permanente includes approximately 165,000 technical, administrative and clerical employees and caregivers, and more than 14,000 physicians representing all specialties. The system's Labor Management Partnership is the largest health care labor-management partnership in the United States. It governs how workers, managers, physicians and dentists work together to make Kaiser Permanente the best place to receive care, and the best place to work. For more Kaiser Permanente news, visit the Kaiser Permanente News Center at: www.kp.org/newscenter.