The Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC) recently released its 2024 Annual Report on Health Care Spending and Quality, comparing the performance of Rhode Island’s commercial healthcare market against national quality benchmarks.
Rhode Island’s commercial health insurance market continues to perform well on many nationally recognized quality measures, particularly in preventive care and screening services. According to the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC), Rhode Island exceeded the national 75th percentile on nearly every major commercial quality measure in 2024 and exceeded the national 90th percentile on most measures, including breast cancer screening, colorectal cancer screening, child and adolescent well-care visits, immunizations, and diabetic eye exams. In practical terms, this means that commercially insured Rhode Islanders generally receive preventive and screening care that compares favorably with most of the nation.
At the same time, the report raises important concerns about areas where quality performance has either stagnated or declined over time. Measures involving chronic disease management and behavioral health — particularly control of high blood pressure, diabetes management, and follow-up care after hospitalization for mental illness — continue to fall below top national benchmarks. OHIC notes that commercial performance on blood pressure control has remained essentially unchanged for three years, while long-term trends from 2011–2024 show deterioration in several important measures tied directly to long-term health outcomes and avoidable illness. The findings suggest that while Rhode Island performs well in many preventive care activities, the healthcare system is having greater difficulty improving outcomes for chronic illness and behavioral health conditions — areas that are increasingly important drivers of healthcare costs, workforce productivity, and long-term affordability for employers and employees alike.
The report also demonstrates substantial variation in quality performance among insurers and provider organizations. BCBSRI generally performed strongest among commercial insurers, while Brown University Health and Integra consistently ranked among the highest-performing provider organizations across many measures. At the same time, some provider organizations struggled to meet national benchmarks on multiple measures. This variation highlights an important issue for the business community: Rhode Island’s healthcare market contains examples of both high-performing and lower-performing systems, suggesting there may be opportunities to improve quality, accountability, and affordability by identifying and expanding best practices across the healthcare system.
Read the report.