How Satisfied are Group Practices with Insurers? Not Very

A survey of nearly 800 physician practice leaders on overall satisfaction with seven major health insurers finds the leaders are not all that satisfied.


A survey of nearly 800 physician practice leaders on overall satisfaction with seven major health insurers finds the leaders are not all that satisfied.

The survey from the Medical Group Management Association scored satisfaction on a 1-5 scale: 1 (completely dissatisfied), 2 (moderately dissatisfied), 3 (neutral), 4 (moderately satisfied) and 5 (completely satisfied). Four payers--Medicare Part B, Cigna, Aetna and Coventry--scored in the neutral range. Anthem, Humana and United Healthcare scored in the moderately dissatisfied range but were close to hitting the neutral mark with scores of 2.99, 2.83 and 2.77, respectively. Further, all seven insurers to some degree experienced a minor decline in their performance during the past six months, according to survey respondents.

With one exception, in the areas of payer communications, provider credentialing, contacting, payment policies, physician rating system transparency, and innovative payment models, all the insurers scored in the mod\erately dissatisfied or neutral range. The exception was Medicare Part B, getting the only 4 score on any issue by any payer, with 4.18 on its willingness to disclose the fee schedule used to reimburse a practice under its contract terms.

Medicare led most of the rankings and Cigna scored consistently high. But all insurers rated in the survey scored only in the 1 range on their willingness to engage in innovative payment models or offer new/innovative contracts based on such concepts as accountable care, shared savings, medical homes or bundled payments. The scores are available here.

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