NCQA names top Medicare, Medicaid plans

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Wellesley, Mass., and Kaiser Permanente's Hawaii unit were named the nation's highest-quality Medicare and Medicaid health plans, respectively, according to top-10 lists by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. All Medicare Advantage plans are required to publicly report results, and more than 100 Medicaid plans do so as well. The plans named to the NCQA lists received the highest scores on a range of key clinical performance measures. The NCQA noted that average scores for both Medicare and Medicaid plans have climbed steadily over the past several years, with Medicare plans improving in cardiac and diabetes care, in particular, and Medicaid plans improving on a range of measures such as providing immunizations and cancer screening and treating asthma. Read the NCQA news release. -- by Laura B. Benko