The study, which draws upon data from 409 plans in a geographically diverse sample of 20 counties in 2015, also found that two in five plans in areas with a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center did not include the center in their networks.
Here are three other findings from the study.
1. Twenty-three percent of Medicare Advantage plans in Kaiser’s study had broad hospital networks in 2015, while about 16 percent had narrow or ultra-narrow networks.
2. In 9 of the 20 counties studied, none of the plans offered in 2015 had a broad network of hospitals within that county, the study found. Those nine counties were Clark in Nevada; Cook in Illinois; Davison in Tennessee; Harris in Texas; Jefferson in Alabama; King in Washington; Los Angeles in California; Pima in Arizona; and Salt Lake in Utah.
3. For the study, Kaiser looked at 307 HMO plans. Among HMOs, broad and narrow network plans had similar average premiums ($37 vs. $36 per month) and similar quality ratings (3.8 vs. 4.1 stars).
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