Kaiser Permanente Receives the Most Stars in California Office of Patient Advocate's Annual Quality R...( OAKLAND Calif. Nov. 20 /- Kaiser Perm...),Health

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaiser Permanente is the only health plan in California to earn excellent, four-star ratings in the 2009 Edition Healthcare Quality Report Card from the California Office of the Patient Advocate (OPA).

The report card results, announced today by the California OPA, also show Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Southern California receiving the highest scores overall in clinical quality among the nine health plans surveyed.

Kaiser Permanente Northern California earned the highest marks overall in the report's comparison of medical services, earning excellent, four-star ratings in asthma care, diabetes care, checking for cancer, heart care, maternity care, mental health care, and Chlamydia screening.

The annual report, available online at http://www.HealthCareQuality.ca.gov, provides California consumers with side-by-side comparisons of health plans, ranking them on a wide array of standard-of-care measures that have both immediate and long-term implications on personal health.

In the category of heart care, Kaiser Permanente Northern California was one of only two plans in the state to receive four stars for a series of measures that included controlling cholesterol and hypertension and appropriate medications for heart attack. The other four-star plan for heart care was Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

Kaiser Permanente Northern and Southern California also shared top honors in categories that included management of blood sugar levels among diabetics, treatment of asthma with the appropriate medications, and screening for breast cancer.

"This report demonstrates the superior clinical outcomes which patients are able to achieve through Kaiser Permanente," said Robert Pearl, MD, CEO and executive director of The Permanente Medical Group, which se
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