The Medical Freedom Channel

“California’s HMOs offer about the same quality of care as health plans nationwide, but that’s not good enough: With few exceptions, they could do better at offering basic services such as cancer screenings, diabetes checks and follow-ups on mental health care, according to a report released Wednesday by the state. In an annual HMO report card compiled by the state Office of the Patient Advocate, Kaiser Permanente — which has 3.2 million members in Northern California — outperformed all other health plans statewide, both in quality of care and member satisfaction. Two health plans, Aetna Health of California and CIGNA HealthCare of California, received the lowest overall scores: average ratings in quality of care and poor ratings in patient satisfaction.” (09/28/06)