WellPoint's Member Health Index Shows Improvement in the Quality of Health Care Received
Posted on: Wednesday, 25 June 2008, 09:03 CDT
INDIANAPOLIS, June 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WellPoint, Inc. , the nation's largest health benefits company, announced it successfully met its goal of improving the quality of health care its members receive, as measured by its Member Health Index (MHI) in the first year of the MHI program. Launched in 2007, the MHI is a comprehensive initiative designed to measure improvements in the health of the company's 35 million members.
"Our Member Health Index, along with the State Health Index, helps provide a picture of how well we are achieving our mission of improving the lives of the people we serve and the health of our communities," said Angela Braly, WellPoint's president and CEO. "We set ambitious goals for the first year of the program, and our success demonstrates the value in working with our members, employers, physicians and hospitals to improve health."
The MHI is composed of 20 clinical areas with 40 specific measures that reflect the quality of care an individual received - some based on standardized national measures and others developed by WellPoint's staff. These measures focus on prevention and screening, care management, clinical outcomes and patient safety. Improvement was shown in 17 of the 20 clinical areas tracked by the Member Health Index, which indicated improvement in the overall rate of members getting recommended care. Examples of statistics that can be extrapolated from this data include:
-- Based on the increase in the percentage of women getting recommended breast cancer screening, nearly 68,000 additional members were screened in 2007 as compared to 2006.
-- 66,000 more members were screened for colorectal cancer based on the improved screening rates.
-- 230,000 more members were screened for high cholesterol levels as compared to 2006's screening rates.
"We are committed to improving the health of our members through tools to aid in prevention, reducing health risks and achieving the best outcomes of care available. We set a high bar for success, and it's exciting to see the result of our efforts. The performance gap between current and target performance closed by more than the 5 percent goal in clinical areas tracked by the Member Health Index," said Dr. Sam Nussbaum, WellPoint's executive vice president and chief medical officer.
As part of this initiative, a portion of all WellPoint employees' incentive income was tied to improvements in the Member Health Index score. Because of the company's success in meeting its 2007 MHI goal, WellPoint associates received their maximum payout for this metric. WellPoint is the first health benefits company to directly link success in improving the health of its members with the compensation of every associate in the company.
To underscore its commitment to improving the health of its communities, last year WellPoint also created the State Health Index to track 23 key indicators of public health established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 14 states where the company operates Blue Cross or Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans. WellPoint focused on eight measures of improvement, as they have the most potential to be positively influenced by the company's health care programs.
"Measures of public health improved appreciably," said Dr. Nussbaum. "WellPoint's state plans will continue to work with health agencies, health professionals and with community and state leaders to develop programs that will help address health issues and, in turn, continually improve the health of millions of Americans year over year."
About WellPoint, Inc.
WellPoint, Inc. is the largest health benefits company in terms of medical membership in the United States. WellPoint is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), Wisconsin; and through UniCare. Additional information about WellPoint is available at http://www.wellpoint.com/.
WellPoint, Inc.
CONTACT: Media, Kristin Binns, +1-917-697-7802, or Investor Relations,Michael Kleinman, +1-317-488-6713
Web site: http://www.wellpoint.com/
Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall
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