Physicians scoff at WellPoint as "most admired"

Doctors take issue with the criteria that Fortune magazine used to rank health care companies.

By Julie A. Jacob, amednews staff. April 2, 2001.

WellPoint Health Networks topped Fortune magazine's list of the most admired health care companies in the United States for the third year in a row. But many physicians and medical groups say the magazine's ranking of health care companies misses the mark because it does not consider how health insurers treat patients and physicians.

"This particular survey is a beauty contest that rates health plans as if they were manufacturing companies," said California Medical Assn. CEO Jack Lewin, MD.

The Fortune list, which ranks the 10 largest for-profit health care companies from the most to least admired, is one of several lists the business magazine compiles annually. The lists appeared in Fortune's Feb. 19 issue.

WellPoint received the top rating, followed by UnitedHealth Group, Cigna HealthCare, Tenet Healthcare Corp., HCA-The Healthcare Co., Anthem Inc., Health Net, Humana Inc., Aetna Inc. and PacifiCare Health Systems. WellPoint, United and Cigna had the same rankings as last year; Aetna dropped from fourth to ninth.

No health care company made the lists of the 10 firms that were the most admired, or least admired, overall.

Fortune tabulated the lists by surveying industry executives, directors and analysts to rank the 10 largest companies in their field on eight attributes: the quality of its product or services, its management quality, financial soundness, innovativeness, employee talent, long-term investment value, use of corporate assets and social responsibility. [...]

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