SCAN Health Plan, Humana, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, UPMC for Life and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas are some of the highest ranked Medicare Advantage plans in certain markets based on customer satisfaction, a new survey shows.

The J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Medicare Advantage Study, released Tuesday, analyzed the responses of 5,887 Medicare Advantage members in California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. It measured members’ satisfaction with their plan based on eight factors: level of trust; ability to get health services how and when they want; helping them save time or money; product/coverage offerings; ease of doing business; people (such as representatives and call center agents); resolving problems or complaints; and digital channels.

The survey found:

• SCAN Health Plan is the highest ranked Medicare Advantage plan in California based on overall customer satisfaction, with a score of 708 points on a 1,000 point scale. Humana ranked second with 692 points and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan ranked third with 680 points.
• Humana ranked highest in Florida with a score of 670 points. UnitedHealthcare came in second with 653 points and Aetna came in third with 647 points.
• Excellus BlueCross BlueShield ranked highest in New York with a score of 700 points. Healthfirst ranked second with 680 points and Humana ranked third with 651 points.
• UPMC for Life came in first in Pennsylvania with 709 points. Highmark ranked second with 706 points and Aetna came in third with 670 points.
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas was the highest ranked plan in Texas with a score of 676 points. Cigna Health ranked second with 668 points and Humana ranked third with 648 points.

J.D. Power also found that generally, overall customer satisfaction with Medicare Advantage plans is high, reaching 652 points out of 1,000 points on average. Medicare Advantage plans particularly do well based on trust, ease of doing business and their product/coverage offerings.

Members are most likely to renew their health plan if they trust their plan and if their plan is good at resolving problems or complaints, the survey discovered as well.

In addition, J.D. Power found areas where Medicare Advantage plans are lacking. Only 31% of respondents said it was easy to find care through their plan. Just 34% said they used two or more digital tools provided by their plan.

“Most Medicare Advantage plans are performing well on the basics, yet there are opportunities for improvement in the areas of ease of finding care, care coordination and innovation around digital self-service,” said Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power, in a statement.

Consumers are most likely to trust information on Medicare Advantage plans from health plan ratings, information received directly from the plan and recommendations from friends, family and co-workers, the survey also found.

“As the number of Medicare Advantage plan options continues to grow, competition for new members and retention are becoming increasingly critical,” Lis said. “Additionally, in 2023, member experience and satisfaction are prominent drivers of CMS Star Ratings. Complementing these trends, J.D. Power research demonstrates that consumers are becoming more sophisticated about researching their healthcare options. Consumer-facing brand attributes like trust, reputation, reviews and customer ratings have become key drivers of satisfaction and customer loyalty.”

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