Health Insurance Blog

According to the BCBSA website, BCBSA has started a new Pediatric Obesity and Diabetes Prevention Pilot Program in Texas, New Mexico, Mississippi, North Carolina and Kansas.  Through this program Blue Cross Blue Shield plans on reducing the epidemic of childhood obesity and stop further cases of young people getting Type 2 Diabetes.

The plan consists informational toolkits for doctors to use as reference guides when addressing obesity.  The kit was designed with the American Diabetes Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics to encourage healthy choices and was passed out in mid-November.  BCBS collectively protects over 100 million Americans through individual health insurance and other health insurance policies, so this large effort by them should have a great impact.

The toolkit offers healthy lifestyle suggestions such as eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, limiting TV time to 2 hours a day, getting an hour of physical activity every day, and stop drinking sweetened drinks.  According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, an overweight teen has a 70% chance of becoming an obese adult which is one of the leading causes of health issues in our country.  This type of action is proving very necessary.

J.D. Powers & Associates rated the top private health plans in the heartland states (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota), and the results were as follows.

Similar to many of the other 17 regions in the JD Power Survey, a Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan took top honors.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska was named the top health plan in this region based on overall customer experience and among the best in the nation.

Three other Blue Cross plans were rated as “better than most”  (4 stars out of 5 in overall experience):  BCBS Kansas, Wellmark BCBS Iowa, and BCBS Kansas City.

Health plans Aetna, CIGNA, UnitedHealthCare, and Coventry Healthcare were rated as being below average.

More information about health insurance in the heartland states:  Nebraska health insurance, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota

The top health insurance plans in Kansas for 2008, based on the annual US News and World Report rankings are listed below.   Rankings are based on a scale of 1 to 100, and are based on the following categories:  1) Consumer assessment 2) Prevention and 3) Treatment.

1. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Good Health HMO (82.7 of 100)
2. United Healthcare of the Midwest (82.0)
3. CIGNA Healthcare of Kansas/Missouri (81.7)
4. Aetna Health - Missouri (81.1)
5. Humana Healthplan of Kansas City (79.9)
6. Community Health Plan (67.6)
7. Coventry Health Care (66.9)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City (BCBSKC), the top rated Kansas Health Insurance Plan, ranked very well in the customer assessment category, and within that category, got outstanding scores with their handling of claims processing.