Released: March 06, 2008

Health insurers get poor marks from hospitals

Source: Lisa Girion, LA Times (Free Registration)

The nation’s biggest health insurers lately have taken to rating hospitals on quality and cost, saying the information can help patients make better choices. Now, hospitals are giving insurers a dose of their own medicine.

A survey of hospital executives to be released today found some national insurers have image problems of their own.
Three of the nation’s five largest insurers had higher negative approval ratings than positive ones, according to the effort to gauge relations between hospitals and the insurers who hire them to take care of their members.

UnitedHealth Group Inc., which has contracts with 96% of the hospitals responding to the survey, was hit with the worst ratings. The Minnetonka, Minn.-based insurer received an “unfavorable” opinion from 91% of the hospital executives who responded, while 8% gave it a “favorable” rating. United owns PacifiCare of California.

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