Expert Care Everywhere: Kaiser Permanente Health Plans Receive Highest Rating from NCQA

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- When tremors from Parkinson's disease began to severely limit the life of Richard Williams, 70, he turned to his Kaiser Permanente physicians in Northern California - and they offered a dramatic solution.

"I couldn't eat soup because it was too hard to control the spoon," said Williams, a retiree in Sonoma, California, about 40 miles north of San Francisco. "It was challenging to insert a credit card into the self-service slot at gas stations."

Kaiser Permanente neurologist Rima Ash, MD, knew Williams was "a perfect candidate" for a surgery called deep brain stimulation, or DBS.

In January, Williams underwent two separate six-hour surgeries in which Kaiser Permanente neurosurgeon Patrick Pezeshkian, MD, implanted wire leads deep within his brain. A generator, much like a pacemaker, implanted below Williams' clavicle delivers high-frequency stimulation to the leads, thus improving the tremors and restoring his quality of life.

"I can't say enough about the professionalism and skill of my doctors," Williams said. "But really I had an amazing support system from everyone at Kaiser Permanente. I could feel their concern, and that everyone was right by my side throughout."

This level of expert specialty care, compassion and personalized service is a hallmark of Kaiser Permanente. The National Committee for Quality Assurance's Health Insurance Plan Ratings 2017-18, published, recognize Kaiser Permanente health plans again this year as among the nation's top performers for consumer experience, prevention and treatment.

NCQA's annual report rates more than 1,000 health plans, including Medicare, Medicaid and Private (commercial), on a 0-to-5 scale, with 5 being the best. Only 15 health plans in the country (approximately 1 percent) were given a 5 out 5 this year, and Kaiser Permanente has six of them, more than any other organization. All Kaiser Permanente health plans were rated 4.0 or higher for overall care.

In addition, for the second year in a row, Kaiser Permanente is only health care organization in the country to have a health plan - Kaiser Permanente Northern California - rate 5.0 for both its Medicare and commercial populations. And for the sixth year in a row, all Kaiser Permanente Medicare health plans are rated highest (or tied for the highest) in the areas they serve. Kaiser Permanente serves more than 11.8 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia.

"The NCQA ratings once again highlight Kaiser Permanente's commitment to providing affordable, high-quality health care coverage to our members and giving our patients the outcomes they expect and deserve," said Patrick Courneya, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. "Since we began as a health care organization more than 70 years ago, our excellence has been rooted in our clinical experience and evidence-based medicine approach. We know that prevention, early intervention and accessibility help our nearly 12 million members - like Mr. Williams - get well sooner and get back to doing what they love most."

Keywords for this news article include: Tremor, Medicare, Dyskinesias, Managed Care, Health Policy, Kaiser Permanente, Insurance Companies, Neurologic Manifestations, Musculoskeletal Diseases and Conditions.

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