Kaiser Permanente Medicare health plans score high ratings for quality and service*
A smart way to compare Medicare health plansThere’s a smart, easy way to compare Medicare health plans. It’s called the Star Quality Ratings. The ratings are given out by Medicare — which rates Medicare health plans each year in categories that include preventive care, prescription drug services, member satisfaction, and more.
2021 ratings
Our Medicare health plans for 2021 received Medicare's highest possible rating, 5 out of 5 stars, in California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon, Southwest Washington, Virginia, and Washington D.C., and 4.5 out of 5 stars in Washington.*
It was developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) — the federal agency that administers Medicare.‡ The system is based on measures spanning these five categories:
Outcomes measures that focus on improvements to a beneficiary's health from the care provided
Intermediate outcomes measures that contribute to the outcome measures above
Patient experience measures represent beneficiaries' perspectives about the care they’ve received
Access measures reflect issues that create barriers to receiving care
Process measures that capture the ways health care is provided
How Star Quality Ratings work
Each Medicare health plan is assigned an overall rating from 5 Stars to 1 Star. The ratings are updated annually based on ongoing monitoring and analysis.
5 Stars: Excellent performance 4 Stars: Above average performance 3 Stars: Average performance 2 Stars: Below average performance 1 Star: Poor performance
What Star Quality Ratings assess
Medicare health plan performance is measured based on 5 major categories:
*Every year, Medicare evaluates plans based on a 5-star rating system. In 2021, Kaiser Permanente California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Mid-Atlantic, and Northwest regions received 5 out of 5 stars. Washington region received 4.5 out of 5 stars.
ǂA branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
**This Star Rating applies to Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest.
††The Star Rating applies to Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington.
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