'U.S. News & World Report' Names Kaiser Permanente Top-Ranked Health Plan in Georgia

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Kaiser Permanente of Georgia has been ranked among the top 30 health plans in the nation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and U.S. News & World Report in their annual survey of commercial health care plans.

Selected as one of "America's Best Health Plans," Kaiser Permanente ranked #27 of 239 plans nationally, up 26 places from last year, and is the top ranked plan in Georgia for the fourth straight year.

The magazine's November 17-24 issue, on newsstands Nov. 10, 2008, also ranked Kaiser Permanente's Medicare plan 37th out of 150 plans -- making it the top Medicare plan in the state for 2008 and one of the top 40 Medicare plans in the nation.

In addition to maintaining its NCQA Excellent Accreditation status, Kaiser Permanente's performance in several other key areas also contributed to its high rankings:

-- Member Satisfaction
-- Cardiovascular Disease, Respiratory Health and Cancer Screenings
-- Child and Maternal Health


Peter Andruszkiewicz, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia, Inc., said these areas -- as well as many others -- have been enhanced in recent years with the addition of KP HealthConnect, Kaiser Permanente's state-of-the-art electronic medical record system.

"KP HealthConnect helps our doctors deliver the best care to our members. It has proven to be an integral part of improving patient safety, coordinating care and decision-making, enhancing documentation, adhering to evidence-based clinical guidelines and improving provider and operational efficiency," Andruszkiewicz said.

"Having KP HealthConnect allows our members to send and receive secure messages from their doctor over the Internet, refill prescriptions, make appointments and use dozens of programs and resources to help them stay healthy," he added.

The basis for the rankings is data collected, analyzed and converted to scores from zero to 100 by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), managed care's major accrediting body. The three reporting categories include consumer experience, prevention and treatment. Kaiser Permanente of Georgia's score of 86.7 gave it the highest score of any plan in Georgia.

Kaiser Permanente is the state's largest nonprofit health plan, serving the health care needs of Atlanta metro area residents for more than 23 years. The health plan currently provides comprehensive health care services to more than 270,000 members through 15 medical facilities in a 28-county service area and a network of affiliated hospitals and physicians.

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