According to US News and World Report, Capital Health Plan, an affiliate of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, is the top rated Medicare Health Plan in Florida.
Founded in 1982, Capital Health Plan serves the four county are surrounding Tallahassee. They currently provide coverage to more than 110,000 members.
More information about Florida health insurance & senior health insurance.
Open enrollment for Medicare Advantage plans is rapidly approaching (November 15 - December 31). We thought we’d blog about some of the top rated plans in each state according to US News and World Reports annual rankings.
In California, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan boasts the 2 top ranked plans in the state. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Southern California was the top rated Medicare health plan in California with an overall score of 88.1, followed by Kaiser’s plan covering Northern California (86.8). These two plans were followed by Health Net of California (83.2), Pacificare of California (81.7) and Aetna Health of California (80.4).
None of the twenty California Medicare Plans ranked in this study received a customer assessment score of greater than three stars out of five. However, both Kaiser plans faired very well in both treatment and prevention measures, with five stars.
More information about California health insurance.
The article “Leading insurance grievance: delays in claims handling” by Becky Yerak on chicagotribune.com states that Illinois consumers have been filing less complaints about their health, auto and homeowners insurance companies.
Illinois health insurance complaints were down 13%, auto insurance complaints were down 10%, and homeowners insurance was down 5%. The complaint ratios, which compare the number of complaints with every $1 million in policies, vary widely among insurance companies.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners released the study showing that the leading complaint was because of delays in handling of claims at 18.7%. The next most common complaint was claims denials which was around 18.2%.
Consumers complained most often about accident and health insurance coverage at 37.5% of complaints. Auto insurance accounted for about 35% and homeowners insurance only accounted for 12.5% of all of the complaints.
The September issue of Consumer Reports ranks the top PPOs and HMOs in the country. In all, 41 PPOs were rated as well as 35 HMOs. The ratings were based on surveys of 37,000 respondents.
Some of the findings included in the report inlcude:
In November of 2008, we published a series of posts breaking down the US News and report’s rankings of commercial health plans. Similarly, below are their rankings of the top Medicare health plans for 2008 based on the same criteria (consumer assessment, prevention, treatment).
More inforamtion about health plans for seniors, Medicare advantage plans, and traditional Medicare Supplement Plans.
Thestreet.com recently rated the financial strength of HMOs from coast-to-coast. It is important to understand the financial strength of an insurance company that will be providing you benefits as a weak company may provide you with sub-standard care as well as the potential for financial loss.
The following companies were rated as having an A+ financial strength rating by thestreet.com
More research about health plans by state.
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.
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. Power & Associates rated Health Alliance Plan (HAP) as the top health plan in Michigan for 2009. Michigan is one of the few “regions” in this study of well over 100 health insurance companies from coast-to-coast, where a Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plan was not recognized as being the top plan.
Health Alliance Plan of Michigan was selected as the top health plan in Michigan and among the top plans in the nation in terms of overall customer experience.
Both, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Priority Health were rated as average when compared to the 100+ health plans included in the study and Aetna was rated as below average.
More information about Michigan health insurance.
