Kaiser Permanente Earns Perfect Score on California Health Organization Report Card
Kaiser Permanente's programs in California – in which it serves more than 6 million people – received perfect four-star scores for clinical quality in an annual report from the state agency that advocates for the rights of health plan members.
The California Office of the Patient Advocate (OPA) gave Kaiser Permanente programs in Northern California and Southern California the highest scores among the state's eight largest health maintenance organizations. It's the first time the OPA has awarded a four-star rating to an HMO.
Kaiser Permanente's Northern California region scored 32 of 36 possible stars, followed closely by its Southern California region with 30 stars – the only two health plans to earn 30 stars or more in nine clinical measures cited by the OPA:
- Asthma care
- Checking for cancer
- Chlamydia screening
- Diabetes care
- Heart care
- Maternity care
- Mental health care
- Treating adults: Getting the right care
- Treating children: Getting the right care
"The four-star rating is an aggregate of many measures, and it is significant because it really shows us what is doable for healthcare plans," said Sandra Perez, director of the state Office of the Patient Advocate, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "What we hope is that plans can learn from each other and find out from Kaiser what is working."
The OPA also evaluated health plans on a variety of specific diagnostic and treatment tasks, and Kaiser Permanente scored well there, too. The Northern California region received the highest score for treating bronchitis with appropriate antibiotics, and Southern California got the highest marks for testing for causes of back pain.
November 21, 2008 Kaiser Permanente News Center