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Kaiser Permanente rates highest score on the state's annual clinical quality report card

For the second consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente is the only health plan in California to earn a four-star rating for quality of care in the 2010 Healthcare Quality Report Card from the California Office of the Patient Advocate (OPA). The annual ratings, available at www.HealthCareQuality.ca.gov, provide California consumers with side-by-side comparisons of health plans, ranking them on a number of standard-of-care measures that have both immediate and long-term implications on personal health.

 

Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Southern California earned the highest four-star marks in the report’s overall comparison of clinical performance, including perfect marks in asthma and lung care, checking for cancer, Chlamydia screenings, and diabetes, heart, maternity and mental health care. In the Checking for Cancer category, Kaiser Permanente Northern California had a 3% increase in breast cancer screenings, a 2% increase in cervical cancer screenings and a 16% increase in colorectal cancer screenings, earning an additional star in this year’s ranking over the 2009 results.

 

Kaiser Permanente Northern California also saw significant increases in their diabetes care and heart care results, and continued to improve its scores in many of the OPA’s customer service categories, including doctor communication, coordinated care, health promotion and receiving care easily.

 

The OPA ratings follow several other recent honors received by Kaiser Permanente:

Kaiser Permanente Northern California achieved “Excellent” accreditation for its Commercial HMO Product in the 2009 Health Plan Report Card of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (ncqa.org); it was also the top-ranked commercial health plan in California in the U.S. News & World Report/NCQA “America’s Best Health Plans 2009–10” survey and was ranked among the top 50 commercial health plans in the nation (usnews.com).

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