Health plan quality improves, while federal payers lag

Over the last nine years, the quality of care delivered to patients enrolled in health plans submitting data to the National Committee for Quality Assurance has continued to improve, though federal payers are lagging behind, according to a new NCQA report. The NCQA accredits and measures health plans using a list of clinical measures tracking how often appropriate care is delivered. Nearly half of 202 million Americans in the commercial insurance market are enrolled in plans that measure quality and report to the NCQA. Data for this year's report came from 2007 and tracked 845 plans.

According to the report, commercial plans that submitted HEDIS data (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) showed increases on 44 of 54 quality measures, including asthma med management, blood pressure control and postpartum care for infants. Private Medicare plans also showed improvements, including in management of medications and treatment after heart attacks. However, traditional Medicare plans only showed improvement for 24 of 45 measures, and Medicaid on 26 of 52.

To learn more about the report:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)

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