New Survey Reveals Best and Worst Health Insurance Companies

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(Business Wire)-- DAVIES, one of the largest public affairs agencies in the country, today released the results of its third annual National Payor Survey of hospital executives. The survey measured hospital executives` perceptions of the nation`s largest health insurance companies. It was coupled with the first National Payor Survey of employers, a new survey that targeted individuals responsible for selecting health plan coverage for employers of all sizes.

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Although health plans are rated poorly in a variety of other surveys - including JD Powers and Harris Poll - the DAVIES survey revealed two outliers in the health insurance community. For the first time, hospitals identified a preferred business partner in Aetna. And for the third straight year, UnitedHealthcare stood out dramatically as a bad actor in its ratings.

For the first time, the survey revealed a preferred partner for hospitals and physicians. Aetna received a 64% favorable rating (compared to a 34% unfavorable rating), which was 9% better than CIGNA, the second-best rated plan and a full 48% better than the worst rated plan, UnitedHealthcare. The survey reveals a strong preference from hospitals based on trust, honesty, business practices and good faith negotiations.

"Aetna is clearly the preferred health insurance partner for hospitals and health systems across the United States," said Brandon Edwards, President/COO of DAVIES.

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The survey revealed that 82% of respondents indicated an unfavorable opinion of UnitedHealthcare, which is actually an 8% improvement for them over last year. This contrasts with an average unfavorable rating of 34% among all other

insurance companies in the survey.

"Employers and health plan members take note - hospitals and physicians deal with health plans every day, and they know who can be trusted to treat people fairly and deal in good faith," said Edwards. "They have reasonably good reimbursement rates for hospitals and physicians, but the survey reveals that hospitals simply don`t trust UnitedHealthcare to follow-through on its promises. Given UnitedHealthcare`s recent admission of problems with their PacifiCare subsidiary and other customer service issues, it`s not surprising to see significant commercial enrollment losses from Bank of America to American Airlines to 7-Eleven and other large employers."

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UnitedHealthcare is paying as much or more than other insurance companies for healthcare services but they are

viewed as the worst performer by a large margin. The survey makes clear that dissatisfaction is driven by distrust, dishonesty, flawed business process, inadequate claims processing, claims denials and other business process problems.

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Nathan Kaufman, a national healthcare strategy consultant and managing director of Kaufman Strategic Advisors, remarked, "Three years in a row shows a clear trend. United`s bad reputation seems to be an outcome of a deliberate business strategy, approach to negotiations and set of business practices. Most negotiations between health plans and providers take place behind closed doors. These results reveal payors through the eyes of people who know how they act when no one is watching - the hospitals that deal with them every day."

For employers faced with deciding which health plan they want to cover their employees, the survey provides valuable data on the stability of healthcare provider networks. An insurer who has a consistent record of poor negotiations

with hospital executives is more likely to force that hospital out-of-network, meaning significant disruption in care for employees forced to travel to a different hospital. In addition to premiums and benefit design, network

stability is one of the most important criteria in evaluating a health plan - and, it has historically not been effectively measured.

The results of the first National Payor Survey of employers demonstrated a clear disconnect from the hospital viewpoint. The survey targeted benefit managers and human resource executives responsible for selecting health plan coverage. These respondents generally give a favorable rating to their own health plan. However, their concerns are dominated by the issue of cost as it relates to rising premiums. Overall, nearly half the employers surveyed blame health plan profits, industry malpractice costs and the cost of caring for the uninsured as the top factors fueling higher insurance premiums.

These opinions, when combined, shed light on an interesting and dynamic disconnect: that the reality on the ground, in the world of everyday purchasers and participants, is very different from the looming conversations emerging around healthcare reform priorities and the legislative focus of lawmakers. It is clear the primary issue for employers is cost. For hospitals, the clear concern is adequate reimbursement and maintaining reasonable, professional

relationships with the major health plans. The breakdown occurs between the hospital`s view of UnitedHealthcare and employers` relatively high level of satisfaction with UnitedHealthcare and other health plans.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressReleas...2009+BW20090303

[Ban Hammer 13,407]

aetna must be first on the list to nationalize.

[Mark&Steph 0]

Funny, considering when we had Aetna, we couldn't find hardly any doctor on their whole list of providers in the area that still wanted to take patients covered by them. I remembered one office nurse even laughing at me when I told her what insurance I had.

[Reba 2]

The insurance I have isn't even listed as being part of the survey Every doctor's office I've been to since we got it (it's thru work) says they're a ###### to work with. The one and only chiropractor in town who signed up with them after our company switched, has since broken his contract with them because they're such a PITA!

I just love it when a doctor prescribes some medication and then the insurance company won't pay for it because "there is no medical history that would required it". Yeah, so if you get a sudden onset of the flu, they probably wouldn't cover the cost of the tamiflu because you had no history of being treated for flu before! ugh...

[rebeccajo 14]

aetna must be first on the list to nationalize.

Why - because they pay the claims?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

This is troubling.

United`s bad reputation seems to be an outcome of a deliberate business strategy, approach to negotiations and set of business practices.

It is appalling that a health insurer would adopt, as a deliberate business strategy, a bad faith approach to negotiations with health care providers. Frankly, that should be illegal. If health care reform accomplishes nothing more than putting a stop to bad faith conduct by insurers, it will have been well worth it (IMO).

Edited May 10, 2009 by Randomizer

[c_and_a 0]

64% is the best?

If I did 64% of my job correctly, I'd be fired in a heartbeat.

[Marilyn. 340]

hubby has had United Healthcare ever since he started his current job, 5 years or so... they are switching to Cigna this year..

funny thing is we still basically have the exact same plan as we did with United healthcare..

we never had any problems with United Healthcare.. they covered everything they were supposed to...

Edited May 11, 2009 by *Marilyn*

[Reba 2]

Doesn't mean however that dealing with United Healthcare is a piece of cake for the health care providers!