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AvMed Receives Highest Quality Rating From Nation's Top Health Care Quality Evaluator

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 12:00 CDT

AvMed Health Plans has received a rating of "Excellent," the highest possible quality rating given to a health plan, from the country's leading health care quality evaluator.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) upgraded AvMed to the Excellent rating based on recent surveys of quality indicators and member evaluations.

The Excellent rating distinguishes AvMed among accredited health plans based on a review of its annual CAHPS(R) survey, which measures member satisfaction, HEDIS(R) scores, which measure clinical quality and customer service, and the score from AvMed's Accreditation survey. In order for AvMed to receive the Excellent Accreditation, its annual HEDIS evaluation also had to achieve results in the highest range of performance.

"We are extremely proud to be rated by this important organization as one of the highest quality health providers in the country. We take these ratings very seriously because they reflect a long tradition of AvMed providing quality care and customer service to our members. But with that said, we will always strive to continue improving our offerings, making it easier and more convenient for our members to obtain quality health care," said Doug Cueny, AvMed's President and Chief Operating Officer.

The rating scorecard will be published by the NCQA this month, and is used by employers and consumers as an evaluation tool when selecting a health plan. Last year AvMed received a Commendable rating.

"NCQA's Excellent Accreditation status is reserved for the best health plans in the nation. It is only awarded to those plans that meet or exceed NCQA's rigorous requirements for consumer protection and quality improvement and deliver excellent clinical care," said Margaret E. O'Kane, NCQA President.

(a) HEDIS is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

(b) CAHPS is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

To achieve the Excellent Accreditation status, AvMed was reviewed against more than 60 different standards and performance measures that fell into the following categories: access and service, qualified provider, staying healthy, getting better and living with illness.

NCQA is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to measuring the quality of America's health plans.

About AvMed Health Plans

AvMed Health Plans is Florida's oldest and largest not-for-profit health plan, improving access to health care for members for more than 30 years, while serving Florida communities in all major metropolitan areas of the state. Through an extensive medical provider network, AvMed offers health care coverage on a fully insured and self-funded basis for employer groups in Florida. Additionally, AvMed offers health care products to Medicare beneficiaries in South Florida. AvMed has offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa, Gainesville and Jacksonville. For more information, visit http://www.avmed.org.

About the National Committee for Quality Assurance

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and manages the evolution of HEDIS(R), the tool the nation's health plans use to measure and report on their performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. For more information about the standards or related educational opportunities, visit NCQA's Web site at http://www.ncqa.org.

Source: Business Wire

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