TRENTON, N.J., October 22 – The states six largest Health Maintenance Organizations got their report cards from the state, and didnt do badly in preventive care and treatment last year.

But in the area of finding a doctor or specialist, they got an F.

Insurance Commissioner Steven Goldman announced the results, marking the 11th year the state has been grading performances of HMOs based on consumer responses to how well the HMOs prevented and treated illness.

Goldman said the HMOs have, since last year, remained consistent in most performance categories, but customer satisfaction had dropped.

The commissioner said, While New Jerseys health maintenance organizations have continued to maintain admirable standards, there is always room for improvement.

There was little change from a year ago on the handling of preventive care and treatment. Those areas included testing for breast cancer, cervical cancer, check-ups for new mothers, immunization for children, appropriate medication of children with asthma, blood sugar testing for diabetics, and beta blocker treatment after a heart attack.

The customer satisfaction categories showed a different result, according to Goldman.

The percentage of consumers who said they never had a problem getting a doctor or specialist dropped from 76 percent to 44 percent, and quality-of-care ratings of at least a nine on a scale of 0-10 dropped from 49 percent to 44 percent.

But in three other area of customer satisfaction, the HMOs got better marks.

The percentage of customers who said they received care quickly went from 43 to 58 percent since last year, the ratings of personal doctors went up from 52 to 60 percent, and the good communications by doctors category went up from 59 percent to 68 percent.

The department reported that the HMOs posted declines in five or more of the clinical performances measures, with each reporting drops of at least six percent for one or more measures.

The six commercial HMOs with at least 2,000 members are included in the report. They are Aetna, AmeriHealth, CIGNA, Health Net, Horizon, and Oxford.

The department reported that CIGNA, Health Net, and Oxford reported the strongest improvements in clinical performances, chalking up good grades in 5 of the 12 clinical performance measures.