HNE Ranked Among Nation’s Best Health Plans

SPRINGFIELD — For the second consecutive year, a national report has ranked Health New England (HNE) among the best plans in the nation for customer satisfaction results.
“The State of Health Care Quality: 2003”, a national report issued by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), recognized HNE on NCQA’s national “Top Ten” list of health plans, according to NCQA’s HEDIS 2003 member satisfaction measures. Last year, HNE was one of the top 15 plans nationally.

NCQA comparatively measures health plans across the country for its Quality Compass® report. The report is based on member satisfaction survey data collected from 267 commercial health plans using the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPS®) member survey. More than 60 million people are covered by the plans surveyed.

The survey measured consumers’ judgments of how well the plans performed in several areas of performance. In the performance areas assessed by the survey respondents, HNE ranked first in the nation in claims processing, sixth in health plan customer service, and ninth in getting needed care.

In addition, the survey asked for consumer opinions on getting care quickly, on how well plan doctors communicate, on the courtesy and helpfulness of physician office staff, rating of personal doctor and specialists seen most often, rating of all health care and overall rating of the health plan. HNE’s results exceeded the national averages in all of these categories.

Through its accreditation process, NCQA has given HNE’s HMO and Point-of-Service products “excellent” accreditation status, a distinction that is only granted to health plans that meet or exceed the high standards set by NCQA for customer satisfaction and quality improvement. To determine the accreditation level, a team of NCQA physicians and managed care experts conduct an intensive on- and off-site-review that examines more than 60 standards and health care performance measures. An oversight committee of physicians analyzes the team’s findings and assigns an accreditation level. Only about 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of all plans can earn the Excellent accreditation status based on their performance and compliance with NCQA’s standards.

“HNE’s goal is to provide our customers with thoughtful and responsive service,” said Pat Scheer, HNE Quality Operations Manager. “We are very pleased that our members rated HNE so highly.”

The NCQA is a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. The organization is widely recognized by employers, consumers, and others as the most trusted, reliable source of information about the quality of the nation’s health care system. Additional information on the NCQA can be found at www.ncqa.org.