Kaiser Permanente Again Ranks No. 1 in Customer Loyalty in the 2012 Satmetrix Net Promoter® Benchmark Study

Health Insurer Promoters cite quality staff, easy access

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Mar 21, 2012, 03:29 ET

OAKLAND, Calif., March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaiser Permanente announced today that it received the highest customer loyalty ranking in the health insurance category based on the Satmetrix® 2012 Net Promoter® industry rankings. Kaiser Permanente received a Net Promoter Score of 33 percent, 30 points higher than the industry average that profiled nine national carriers. This is the second consecutive year Kaiser Permanente has led the health insurance category.

"Kaiser Permanente continues to be the leader in customer loyalty in the health insurance sector," said Deborah Eastman, general manager of business consulting at Satmetrix. "The company has successfully leveraged an innovative business model that combines insurance coverage with health care delivery in one coordinated service. Consumers cited positive aspects of the entire health care experience when commenting on the Kaiser Permanente health plans, from reasonable prices to easy one-stop care and attentiveness from both medical and service staff."

"We are very pleased to be recognized again this year by consumers across the country," said Arthur M. Southam, MD, executive vice president, Health Plan Operations, for Kaiser Permanente. "Kaiser Permanente's integrated system, co-location of services, and cutting-edge health information technology enable us to provide our members with a more personalized experience than they might receive from a traditional health insurance plan."

"This recognition reflects our team's commitment to making lives better. Our outstanding physicians, nurses and care teams deliver the highest quality care and service to our members every day," said Bernard Tyson, president and chief operating officer for Kaiser Permanente.

Other companies that ranked No. 1 in their industry include Virgin America, Apple, Vanguard, Trader Joe's and Amazon.com. The Satmetrix Net Promoter Benchmark rankings are based on survey responses from more than 30,000 U.S. consumers nationwide who indicated they had significant experience with a company's products or services in the previous 12 months. A company's Net Promoter Score, or NPS®, is based on customers' likelihood to recommend the company's product or service in the sector being rated. NPS is calculated as the percentage of customers who are promoters, rating the company 9 or 10 on a zero-to-10 point scale, minus the percentage who are detractors, rating 6 or lower.

Consumers also rated each company on various aspects of customer experience including product or service features, customer service and overall value, enabling Satmetrix to analyze drivers of loyalty and performance gaps for each company.

About Net Promoter and Satmetrix

Net Promoter is both a customer loyalty metric and a discipline for using customer feedback to fuel profitable growth. Developed by Satmetrix, Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld, the concept was first popularized through Reichheld's book The Ultimate Question, and further explored by Richard Owen and Dr. Laura Brooks of Satmetrix in Answering the Ultimate Question. Net Promoter has been embraced by leading companies worldwide as the standard for measuring and improving customer loyalty. Satmetrix is the leading provider of cloud-based customer experience software for companies worldwide. As co-developer of the Net Promoter® methodology, its applications deliver full process support to help companies reduce customer chum, mobilize loyal promoters, generate more powerful insights and drive customer obsession through accountability. Learn more at www.satmetrix.com or www.netpromoter.com.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We serve approximately 8.9 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.

Contact:

Mark Camps 510-625-5624

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente