September 21, 2012 — Two Kaiser Permanente Northwest health plans have been ranked number one in the Northwest for 2012 by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality.
It’s the second year in a row that Kaiser Permanente Northwest’s Medicare and private (commercial) plans received the top ranking among HMO and PPO plans. In addition, the Medicare plan ranked fifth best in the nation, while the private (commercial) plan was ranked 13th best nationally.
The NCQA measures plans in three categories: prevention, clinical treatment, and consumer satisfaction. Kaiser Permanente scored in the top 10 percent in the first two categories, and consumer satisfaction scores are improving.
“We want to deliver the best preventive and clinical care possible, and these scores reflect that,” said Jeffrey Weisz, MD, president and executive medical director of Northwest Permanente, PC. “We know that prevention saves lives and helps control medical costs.”
Kaiser Permanente also strives to make it easy for patients to get the care and service they need. “Our investment in our online tools, such as kp.org and our electronic health record, is creating better patient satisfaction,” said Andrew McCulloch, president of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan of the Northwest. “We have 4 million Kaiser Permanente members using kp.org — many from their smartphones and other mobile devices.”
Other Kaiser Permanente regions achieved high rankings as well. For commercial plans, six of the eight regions ranked in the nation’s top 20. Four of the eight Kaiser Permanente regions ranked in the top five for Medicare for the second year in a row.
