Kaiser Permanente Northern and Southern California are the only health plans to receive the highest score for patient care from the Office of the Patient Advocate

 Oakland, CA, October 21, 2016 – For the ninth consecutive year,  Kaiser Permanente Northern and Southern California are the only health plans in California to earn a four-star rating—the highest possible—for overall clinical effectiveness in the annual Healthcare Quality Report Card from California’s Office of the Patient Advocate (OPA).

The 2016-2017 report card provides California consumers with side-by-side comparisons of the largest HMOs and PPOs in the state. It ranks them on national standard-of-care measures that involve treatment and prevention of a range of conditions that have significant implications for personal health. Ten of the state’s largest HMOs and five PPOs are compared in the report card, and Kaiser Permanente is the only one with the top rating possible for overall clinical performance measures.

Kaiser Permanente in both Northern and Southern California received three stars in the “Patients Rate their Experience” category, which measures members’ satisfaction with their care and service. Kaiser Permanente Northern California scored four stars — higher than any other health plan in the state — in “Behavioral and Mental Health Care.”

“Kaiser Permanente is transforming the way health care is provided and lives are being saved as a result,” said Robert Pearl, MD, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group. “Our more than 8,000 physicians in Northern California work with our members to achieve superior quality outcomes for patients with cancer, heart disease and strokes. The combination of exceptional physicians and advanced technology have made us the health care leader across the United States. As a result, we have lowered the chances of our patients dying from cardiovascular disease 30% below the rest of California. This four-star rating reflects that excellence.”

“These ratings illustrate that our commitment to clinical excellence and prevention is paying off — we’re keeping people healthier and preventing illnesses and diseases from occurring in the first place,” said Janet Liang, president, Kaiser Permanente Northern California. “We’re committed to keeping our members at the center of everything we do and giving them a safe, high-quality care experience.”

This year, Kaiser Permanente in Northern California earned top scores in seven report-card categories for clinical care, including cancer screening, diabetes care, heart care, maternity care, behavioral and mental health, testing causes for back pain, and “getting the right care” for children.

Since 2012, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), the premier organization measuring the performance of health-care providers in the United States, has been a partner with the OPA in developing the annual report card in California.

The 2016-2017 OPA ratings follow several other recent honors received by Kaiser Permanente:

  • For the sixth consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente’s Medicare plan in California earned 5 stars, the highest overall rating in the state for quality and service for 2017, from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
  • Kaiser Permanente’s Medicare and commercial health plans in Northern California were rated 5 out of 5, according to the NCQA Health Insurance Plan Ratings for 2016-17. Kaiser Permanente Northern California was the only health plan in the country to receive the highest rating for both its Medicare and commercial plans.
  • Fourteen Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California made the list of the nation’s “high-performing” medical centers for both common and complex procedures, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2016-17 Best Hospitals report.
  • For the ninth consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente was given the highest ranking for customer satisfaction in California — ahead of all other health plans in the state that were included in the study — according to the 2016 J.D. Power Member Health Plan Study.
  •  Kaiser Permanente health plans in California earned a 5-star overall “Quality Rating”—the highest possible — from Covered California, the state’s marketplace for the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Covered California’s ratings are divided into 19 geographic regions in the state. Kaiser Permanente is the only health plan in the state to receive 5 stars – and did so in all 19 regions.

This press release was published on October 21, 2016