TriCare and Kaiser Permanente earned the top spots in the health insurance sector of the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings.

In a release, the Company noted at the other end of the spectrum, Empire (BCBS), Medicaid, and Highmark (BCBS) were the lowest-rated health plans. The health plan industry has the second-lowest average rating across 19 industries. Only TV service providers earned a lower average score.

"While health plans continue to deliver terrible customer experience, there's some glimmer of hope, as the industry's ratings have consistently improved over the last three years," said Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group.

The Temkin Experience Ratings evaluates three areas of customer experience: functional (can customers do what they want to do), accessible (how easy it is to work with the company), and emotional (how consumers feel about their interactions).

The 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings includes 15 health plans: Aetna, Anthem (BCBS), Blue Shield of California , CareFirst (BCBS), Cigna, Coventry Health Care, Empire (BCBS), Health Net, Highmark (BCBS), Humana, Kaiser Permanente, Medicaid, Medicare, TriCare, and United Healthcare.

Additional findings:

-The average rating for health plans has been steadily improving over the last three years, from an average of 50.3 percent in 2011 to 54.8 percent in 2013.

-The highest-ranked health plan, TriCare, is #78 across all industries in the ratings. The plan's rating of 71 percent is six percentage points ahead of the second-highest-ranked health plan, Kaiser Permanente.

-TriCare earned the top marks for functional and emotional experience while Kaiser Permanente earned the top accessible rating.

-The lowest-ranked health plan, Empire (BCBS), was the only plan with a "very poor" rating. Thirteen of the 15 health insurance plans have "poor" or "very poor" ratings.

-TriCare made the largest improvement from 2012, increasing 12 percentage points. Next on the list, Anthem (BCBS) gained eight percentage points and Highpoint (BCBS) gained seven percentage points.

-Three plans tied for the lowest functional rating: CareFirst (BCBS), Health Net, and Empire (BCBS).

-Medicaid earned the lowest rating for the accessible component.

-Cigna and CareFirst (BCBS) earned the lowest emotional ratings.

Temkin Group is a customer experience research and consulting firm.

Report information:

TemkinRatings.com.

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