HealthPocket Study: Quality Inconsistent Across Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare Plans
Seniors should review plan quality scores rather than just relying on the Blue Cross Blue Shield brand
SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 9, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/-- Many seniors assume Blue Cross Blue Shield is a single company when in fact the BlueCross BlueShield Association licenses its brand to dozens of different insurance companies including publicly traded Anthem, Inc. Altogether, the Blue Cross Blue Shield companies provide healthcare coverage to a third of all Americans. Given the brand's large market share as well as its award of "health plan brand of the year" by 2015 Harris Poll EquiTrend, HealthPocket investigated whether quality was consistent among the different Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicare plans based on government ratings data.
HealthPocket's analysis of the government's most recent data on Medicare plan quality revealed significant differences in quality among Blue Cross and blue Shield Medicare drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans. The best Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare plan had an 80% higher quality rating than the worst Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare plan. Moreover, despite the brand's popularity, the average quality rating across all Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare plans was no better than the average quality rating for Medicare plans in general.
The government's quality ratings for Medicare plans is expressed on a star ratings scale of one to five stars, with three stars being average and five stars being excellent. When compared to other well-known brands in the Medicare insurance market, HealthPocket found that the Blue Cross and Blue Shield average star rating (3.6) for Medicare plans across its individual companies was higher than the average rating for UnitedHealthcare plans (3.38) but below other well-known companies such as Kaiser (4.92), Humana (3.95), and Aetna (3.82).
"HealthPocket's analysis of government quality ratings on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicare plans illustrates two important facts for seniors," said Kev Coleman, Head of Research & Data at HealthPocket, "first, quality differences among Blue Cross Blue Shield companies can be significant so seniors should not rely solely on the brand when making a Medicare plan choice, and second, despite the popularity of the Blue Cross Blue Shield brand, quality ratings averaged across the different Blue Cross Blue Shield companies were the same as Medicare plans in general."
The full results can be read in the InfoStat "Quality Inconsistent Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare Plans."
HealthPocket.com is a free website that compares and ranks all health insurance plans, helping individuals, families, and small businesses to make their best health plan decisions. HealthPocket publishes health insurance market analyses and other consumer advocacy research. HealthPocket's research is nonpartisan and uses only objective data from government, non-profit, and private sources that carry no conditions that might restrict the site from serving as an unbiased resource. HealthPocket, Inc. is independently managed and based in Mountain View, California. Learn more at www.HealthPocket.com.
For more information, please contact Ryan Hughes, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at [email protected] or 703-739-5920/800-536-5920.
SOURCE HealthPocket
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