A survey by the
After voluntarily allowing accreditation lapse for the plans last year, Cigna submitted all 95 of its health plans to the NCQA for a single national survey. The accreditation evaluates how well a health plan manages its entire delivery system, including physicians, hospitals and other facilities, and administrative services.
In 31 percent of markets, NCQA awarded Cigna its highest accreditation status of “Excellent,” while in 63 percent of markets, NCQA awarded Cigna “Commendable” status and six percent of the plans earned “Accredited” status for service and clinical quality that meet NCQA’s basic requirements for consumer protection and quality improvement.
“We’re very pleased with these results, which underscore Cigna's ongoing commitment to improving health care quality, affordability and patient satisfaction,” Dr. Dick Salmon, Cigna's national medical director for performance measurement and improvement, said in a statement.
NCQA says the accreditation enables brokers, employers and individuals to evaluate the quality of different plans based on common criteria so that health plan decisions can be based on demonstrated value rather than cost alone.
"Based on a national, multiple-product survey, these results are a strong validation of the consistency of Cigna’s quality programs,” said Helen Darling, president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health. “Such an emphasis on clinical quality is becoming ever more important with a need to ensure value to consumers and employers."
