KAISER FOUNDATION: Tops CMA Health Plan Expenditure Summary
The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan returned the largest percentage of health care premium dollars to medical care among California health plans, according to the California Medical Association's fifth annual Knox-Keene Health Plan Expenditures Summary. The summary, released yesterday, reveals that the nonprofit Kaiser Foundation returned more than 96 cents on the dollar to medical care during the 1996-97 period covered by the study. Only three cents of every dollar spent by the Kaiser Foundation went to administration, and less than a penny went to profit. Dr. Robert Reid, CMA president, said the "Knox-Keene report offers one way for health insurance purchasers to evaluate [how] their health care premiums will be spent." CMA Executive Vice President Dr. Jack Lewin said, "Medical loss ratios and executive compensation reports don't yet get us to our goal of reporting health care and outcomes and quality of care data." He added, "CMA's multi- year reports show how much of the health care dollar is increasingly diverted to non-health care costs." To view the complete Knox-Keene Health Plan Expenditure Summary online, click here (CMA release, 3/23).
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