Celebrating Women’s History and Women’s Health

March 20, 2018 · NCQA Communications

We know what you’re thinking, “how does Women’s History Month fit into the work we do here at NCQA?” Allow me to explain.

A bit of history…

March’s 2018 Women’s History Month

Women’s History Month focuses on the empowerment of women. That means recognizing the women in health care who are making a difference. A great example would be our female driven roots of NCQA. We can thank our President Peggy O’Kane for that. Here at NCQA, we are not only recognizing women in health care, we are also highlighting the programs targeting women’s health.

At NCQA we measure how often people are getting the recommended care and preventive screenings. For women those measures include: Prenatal Checkups, Postpartum Care, Breast Cancer Screening, Cervical Cancer Screening, Non- Recommended Cervical Cancer Screening and Chlamydia Screening.

Here’s a list of the health plans that are exceeding in women’s health standards.

How are health plans stacking up?

Over 1,000 health plans were rated in 2017, the commercial health plans below scored a 5 (the highest possible) in measures related to women’s health and had an overall health plan ratings score of 5:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts HMO Blue, Inc. 

John Hopkins US Family Health Plan

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.-Northern California 

Tufts Associated Health Maintenance Organization, Inc.

Tufts Benefit Administrators, Inc.

Wrapping Up

Whether it is breast cancer screening or cervical cancer screening, it’s important that we continue measuring how health plans are stacking up and the specific measures where they’re excelling. Measurement leads to improvement and the more we know about health plans’ performance the better-informed consumers are too. How does your health plan rate? Find out here.