Insurers still overlook breast cancer screening

This year's annual report from the National Committee for Quality Assurance showed a mixed bag of good and bad news, reported Managed Care (11/2005). Of the 289 commercial health plans that reported data to the NCQA, the average performance showed improvements in 18 of 22 clinical measures. First the bad news: The average performance of the health plans worsened with respect to breast cancer screening. On the other hand, the clinical measures that did show improvement included beta-blocker treatment after a heart attack, comprehensive diabetes care, cholesterol management control, high blood pressure control, and childhood immunization status.