Asparity Decision Solutions, a leading provider of decision support and data solutions in health care and employee benefits, has announced its PlanSmartChoice Plus award recipients for the 2010 Open Season. This award recognizes the top-rated health plans in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program based on their PlanSmartChoice results and user satisfaction ratings. PlanSmartChoice is an online suite of health plan selection tools available free to all federal employees to help them select a medical plan that best provides for their personal and financial needs.

Asparity is pleased to report that this year's winners again represent a range of product designs, regional and national plans, and for-profit and not-for-profit insurance carriers. Two organizations serve only the federal employee (and retiree) population, and three are repeat recipients. The PlanSmartChoice Plus recipients include:

• Health Alliance Plan, an HMO (high option) in Michigan
• HMSA, a point-of-service plan (high option) in Hawaii
• Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado (high option HMO)
• Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia (high option HMO)*
• NALC Health Benefit Plan, a national fee-for-service plan (high option)*, which serves only the federal population
• SAMBA Health Benefit Plan, a national fee-for-service plan (standard option)*, which serves only the federal population
• UnitedHealthcare Plan of River Valley, an HMO (high option) in Iowa and Illinois

"The President is committed to providing Americans with the same type of health care coverage as members of Congress and other federal employees," said Colleen M. Murphy, Asparity's President and CEO. More than 250 health plans participate in the FEHB program, including consumer directed health plans, fee-for-service plans, health maintenance organizations, high deductible health plans, point- of-service plans, and preferred provider organizations. Each health plan varied in how well it performed in the PlanSmartChoice tools and user satisfaction ratings. "Asparity is pleased to recognize these seven plans that excelled at fulfilling the needs of all federal employees."

Federal employees who participate in the FEHB program have an average choice of 20 medical plan options. Selecting a health plan can be overwhelming, and federal employees use PlanSmartChoice to evaluate their options and make informed choices. The PlanSmartChoice Plus rating system measures how well health plans met their needs. The ratings are based on three sets of "component" measures collected within the PlanSmartChoice site:

• Preference performance index measures plan performance in the preference module.
• Cost performance index measures plan performance in the medical cost calculator.
• Satisfaction performance average measures PlanSmartChoice users' satisfaction with their plans.

Asparity calculates preference, cost, and satisfaction rating scores. The overall performance rating is based on a one-third weighting of these underlying component scores. The PlanSmartChoice Plus designation is awarded to the top ten percent of all rated plans that achieved component scores of three or more stars (out of five) in each component measure.

"Federal employees are a diverse population, and each person's health insurance needs are unique," said Murphy. "Fortunately, they have a wide range of medical plan options, as well as the tools they need to evaluate those options and make informed choices." While individual results may have varied, on average, PPOs were the most affordable plans with an average total cost of $3,314, FFS plans best provided for federal employees' personal needs (such as access to out-of-network providers), and HMOs had the highest satisfaction ratings.

These results are based on the following data sources from the 2010 open season:

• During registration, 49,294 users provided self-reported demographic and 2009 plan information.
• During enrollment, all users' results were saved and aggregated for reporting purposes.
• After enrollment, Asparity surveyed users about their 2010 benefit choices; 9,251 responded to the survey.

Asparity makes PlanSmartChoice available free to all federal employees. Federal employees access the health plan selection tools at www.PlanSmartChoice.com and use them to:

• Learn which medical plan best meets their personal and financial needs.
• Understand the total cost of their health care based on their own need for medical services.
• Determine how much to contribute to FSAFEDS to control their health care costs.
• Compare detailed benefits across their medical, dental, and vision plan options.

To support the site, Asparity makes the PlanSmartChoice site available to select sponsors. It also provides aggregated data to federal agencies and health plans. These organizations can use the data to better understand federal employees' health care needs and buying behavior and to improve health plan performance.

The information contained in this press release and the PlanSmartChoice 2010 open season results may not be used for advertising or other promotional purposes without Asparity Decision Solutions' prior written approval.

About PlanSmartChoice

PlanSmartChoice is available to federal employees who select their benefits through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program at www.PlanSmartChoice.com. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have used Asparity's PlanSmartChoice health plan selection tools since they were first made available in 1998. The tools were developed in 1996 and 1997, when the Agency for Health Care Policy & Research/ Small Business Innovation Research granted more than $1 million to develop software that would help federal employees and retirees choose a health plan. The technology, trademarked PlanSmartChoice, was patented in 2004.