The 2011 State Health Care Quality Report includes NCQA's latest findings about the nation's health care system, notably:
• PPO performance is catching up with HMO performance.
For the first time in the 15-year history of this annual study, NCQA publicly compares HMOs and PPOs across all measures of care. HMOs were first to embrace quality improvement, but PPOs enroll more people.
• Health plans’ performance has improved substantially over time.
Insurers’ commitment to measurement, transparency and accountability has made care better over long periods. Commercial and Medicare PPOs displayed significant performance improvement and showed progress in closing the performance gap with HMOs.