NJDHSS New Jersey HMOs: Performance Report Sources of Information

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services compiled the information in this booklet with the cooperation of the New Jersey HMOs and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). NCQA is a nonprofit organization that assesses, measures and reports on the quality of care provided by the nation's HMOs.

There are two sources of information:

HMOs. The HMOs collected data that are part of a set of measures called HEDISŽ. HEDIS measures - developed by NCQA - provide a standard "measuring tool" so that HMOs can be compared in a fair way. The Peer Review Organization of New Jersey, an independent consultant, conducted an audit to verify the accuracy of this data.
Consumers. The Eagleton Institute's Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University, an independent survey company, conducted a satisfaction survey of a representative sample of members in each HMO. Over 5,500 HMO members were surveyed for this report in the summer of 1997. The satisfaction survey used - Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPS) - was developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

This booklet contains information on the following HMOs:

Aetna U.S. Healthcare-New Jersey (Aetna USHC)
AmeriHealth HMO, Inc. New Jersey (AmeriHealth)
CIGNA HealthCare of New Jersey, Inc. (CIGNA-Southern NJ)
CIGNA HealthCare of Northern New Jersey, Inc.-CoMED HMO (CIGNA-Northern NJ)
First Option Health Plan of New Jersey (First Option)
HIP Health Plan of New Jersey (HIP)
HMO Blue-Medigroup, Inc. (HMO Blue)
NYLCare Health Plans of New Jersey, Inc. (NYLCare)
Oxford Health Plans-NJ, Inc. (Oxford)
Prudential HealthCare-New Jersey HMO (Prudential)
QualMed Plans for Health, Inc. (QualMed)
United HealthCare of New Jersey, Inc. (United)

Only HMOs with large commercial enrollments for 1996 are included in this report. These HMOs accounted for 98% of the New Jersey commercial enrollment in 1996. Of those plans, only NYLCare and First Option failed to produce required HEDIS data necessary to monitor HMO quality. For a complete definition of the HMOs covered by this report see Background Information.