Health Insurance Blog

The five largest New Jersey health insurance companies and five physician groups have launched a pilot program to reduce administrative costs by allowing hospitals and physicians to communicate directly with health plans and address administrative tasks through a web portal.

The pilot is sponsored by AHIP and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.  If the pilot proves successful and can be rolled out nationally, representatives from AHIP believe hundreds of billions of dollars can be saved annually.

The participating health plans include:Aetna, Amerihealth, Horizon BCBS, CIGNA, and United Healthcare.
AHIP undertook a similar pilot with Ohio health plans in October.  That pilot program is still underway.

In US News and World Reports recent ranking of the the nations top health insurance plans, CIGNA HealthCare Mid-Atlantic was rated as the top health plan in Virginia.  The US News rankings are based on member satisfaction, as well as their effectiveness in both preventing and treating illnesses.

According to the report the top 5 Commercial Health Plans in Virginia were:

1. CIGNA HealthCare Mid-Atlantic
2. Optima Health Plan
3. Southern Health Services
4. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States
5. UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley

CIGNA HealthCare Mid-Atlantic ranked 42nd nationally out of more than 600 health plans that participated in the report.

More information about Virginia health insurance.

In what has been a roller coaster for all those involved and interested, the Wall Street Journal reports that the health overhaul bill once finalized need not include a Government-run health insurance option as long as other parts of the bill would fulfill the same goals.  However, one thing that will be required from the bill is the ability to hold health insurance companies accountable.

Keeping a public option out of the bill is a top priority for AHIP, whose members include CIGNA, WellPoint Inc. and Humana Inc. among other health insurance companies. The group also opposed the Senate bill because of new taxes on the industry, caps on administrative costs and other changes.

The state of California has launched a website that will help California residents select the best PPO health plan for their needs.  The site contains both summary ratings as well as more detailed underlying metrics of each plan measured.

California has provided similar information to HMO customers since 2002.

Their are currently 5 California PPOs measured on the site, and none of them received an overall 4 star rating (highest score).  Aetna, Cigna and Healthnet each received 3 stars while Anthem and United HealthCare received 2 stars.  Blue Shield of California was late on providing data necessary to included in ratings amd will be included in ratings in 2011.

More information about California health insurance.

When JD Power & Associates rated the top health plans in Pennsylvania, they also included Delaware in a region which included both Pennsylvania & Delaware.  However, of the eleven private health insurance companies that were included in the study and part of this region, eight of them where Pennsylvania health plans, and the three that weren’t exclusively Pennsylvania plans (Aetna, CIGNA, and UnitedHealthCare) did not factor into consideration among the top plans and were all rated as being below average in overall experience.

According to the study, the top health insurance plan in Pennsylvania was Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, which was also judged to be one of the best the nation has to offer.  Finishing a close second to Highmark BCBS, was another Highmark inc. company and Blue Cross Blue Shield Licensee Highmark Blue Shield.

Highmark BCBS serves health insurance customers in Western Pennsylvania, while Highmark Blue Shield serves Central PA.

Other Pennsylvania health plans that fared particularly well in the study include Capital BlueCross and Geisinger Health Plan, both were rated above average.

In JD Power & associates 2009 rankings of the top health plans in Ohio, Medical Mutual took top honors.  Based on JD Power surveys, Medical Mutual of Ohio is among the best health plans in the country.

Humana is the 2nd best health plan in Ohio according to this study of well over 100 health plans nationally, and also among the best in the country.  Other Ohio health plans that were rated include:  Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield & Aetna which were both rated as average, and CIGNA & UnitedHealthCare which were rated as below average.

More information about Ohio health insurance.

US News Top Ohio Health Plans

JD Power & Associates ranked Humana the top rated health plan in Texas for 2009, in overall customer experience.  In addition to being rated as the top health plan in Texas, The Humana health plan that operates in Texas was rated as being among the best in the nation ( 5 out of 5 stars).

Other private health plans that faired well included CIGNA & Aetna who each received 4 of 5 stars, which denotes them as being better than most.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas was rated as below average, one of the few Blue Cross Blue Shield member health plans that did not fair well in the JD Power survey.  BCBSTX was rated below average.

More information about Texas health insurance.

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 state of Florida was not included in the Southeast region when J.D. Powers ranked the top health plans in the Southeast, in their rating of the top health plans in 17 distinct regions, Florida is its own region.  That being said, J.D. Power and Associates rated Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida as the top rated health plan in Florida.

BCBSFL was rated as being among the best health plans in the country, as was Humana, coming in just behind the Florida Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.

Other Florida health plans that were rated as part of this study included UnitedHealthCare, CIGNA, and Aetna.  UnitedHealthCare was given 4 stars out of 5 in overall experience (better than most) while CIGNA & Aetna were given 2 stars, a below average rating.

More about Florida health insurance.

June 1, CIGNA began offering individual health insurance plans in Connecticut.  Their portfolio of health plans for CT residents include open access managed care plans and high-deductible health plans that are HSA eligible.  Until this recent product launch, CIGNA had only offered health insurance to mid to large employer groups in Connecticut.

In addition to offering health plans for individuals in Connecticut, CIGNA also offers individual health plans in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee & Texas.

More information about Connecticut health insurance.