99 Percent of PacifiCare Commercial HMO Members Covered by Health Plans with ``Excellent'' Accreditation.Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers CYPRESS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 6, 2003 -- PacifiCare of Texas' commercial HMO receives NCQA "Excellent" Accreditation -- PacifiCare's quality improvement programs now deemed "Excellent" in Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Oklahoma PacifiCare Health Systems PacifiCare Health Systems (former NYSE: PHS) was a Fortune 500 healthcare company based in Cypress, California. It was acquired by UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) in late 2005, which continues to market health plans under the PacifiCare name. Inc. (Nasdaq:PHSY PHSY PacifiCare Health Systems, Inc ), announced that its Texas commercial HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, and Point-of-Service (POS (1) See point of sale and packet over SONET. (2) "Parent over shoulder." See digispeak. POS - point of sale ) plans have earned an "Excellent" status rating, the highest level of accreditation, from the National Committee for Quality Assurance National Committee for Quality Assurance Medical practice A private, not-for-profit organization which has become the leading accreditor of managed care plans; in site visits, NCQA reviewers evaluate a managed care plan in terms of quality management, physicians' (NCQA NCQA National Committee on Quality Assurance, see there ). NCQA is an independent, not-for-profit organization that sets nationwide standards for the health-care industry and evaluates and reports on the quality of the nation's managed care organizations (http://www.ncqa.org). The "Excellent" rating is the highest level of NCQA Accreditation that can be achieved by HMO and POS plans. NCQA evaluates both levels of service and clinical quality. With the "Excellent" status in Texas, PacifiCare has now achieved "Excellent" Accreditation in seven of the eight states where it offers commercial HMO and POS plans. PacifiCare currently holds a "Commendable" Accreditation for its health plans in Nevada. "After many years of focus on improvement of quality of care and customer satisfaction, we've learned that you can't just talk about it, you have to do something about it," said Howard G. Phanstiel, president and chief executive officer of PacifiCare Health Systems. "NCQA's accreditation process is the gold standard for health plans. It lets our members know we are keeping our promise to provide access to quality health care." "NCQA's 'Excellent' Accreditation is another validation of PacifiCare's drive to continually improve quality of care and customer satisfaction for our members," said Sam Ho, M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer of PacifiCare Health Systems. "We have demonstrated that a health plan can take action to enhance the level of service and outcomes for its members. Our goal is to be the first national, managed care organization in the country with 'Excellent' Accreditation status in all states where we offer commercial HMO and POS plans." NCQA's "Excellent" Accreditation is granted only to those health plans that demonstrate levels of service and clinical quality that meet or exceed NCQA's rigorous requirements for consumer protection and quality improvement. Plans earning this accreditation level must also achieve HEDIS HEDIS Health Plan Employer Data & Information Set Managed care An initiative by the National Committee on Quality Assurance to develop, collect, standardize, and report measures of health plan performances. (R) (Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set The Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is a widely used set of performance measures in the managed care industry, developed and maintained by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. ) results that are in the highest range of national or regional performance. HEDIS(R) scores are a set of standardized performance measures designed to ensure that purchasers and consumers have the information they need to reliably compare the performance of managed health care plans. PacifiCare Health Systems serves more than 3 million health plan members and approximately 9 million specialty plan members nationwide with annual revenues of more than $11 billion. PacifiCare is celebrating its 25th anniversary as one of the nation's largest consumer health organizations, offering individuals, employers and Medicare beneficiaries a variety of consumer-driven health care and insurance products. Specialty operations include behavioral health Behavioral health was first used in the 1980's to name the combination of the fields mental health and substance abuse. As an example, an organization serving both mental health and substance abuse clients might refer to its practice as behavioral health or , dental and vision, life insurance, and complete pharmacy and medical management through its wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. , Prescription Solutions. More information on PacifiCare Health Systems is available at www.pacificare.com. Note to Editors: HEDIS(R) is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). |
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