(NCQA: Washington) -- Data on clinical performance and patient experience for more than 85 million Americans enrolled in more than 400 commercial health plans are now available from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. NCQA’s Quality Compass, the United States’ most widely used database of health plan performance, includes information on clinical performance and member satisfaction for more than 160 preferred provider plans (PPO) for the first time. While NCQA has reported data for health maintenance organizations (HMOs) since 1995, this year marks the first time that individual PPO plan data will be reported in Quality Compass. The first-time inclusion of plan-level PPO data accounts in large part for the increase in submissions in this year’s edition of the database; 410 commercial plan submissions are included, up from 251 last year. “Two-thirds of privately insured Americans receive their coverage from PPOs. This wealth of PPO data gives us a much clearer picture of health plan performance in the United States,” says NCQA chief information officer Rick Moore. “The addition of this data to Quality Compass allows decision makers in the health plan contracting cycle to make meaningful comparisons among both HMO and PPO plans.” Employers, health plans, pharmaceutical companies, and benefit consultants use Quality Compass to directly compare a health plan’s quality and customer service scores to those of other health plans.

 …