AmeriHealth Mercy Announces Launch of New Health Education and Management Program Website

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/ — AmeriHealth Mercy announced today the launch of its newest website, http://www.healthyhoopsprogram.com/, which features its health education and management program, Healthy Hoops. This NCQA-recognized program uses basketball as a platform to teach children and their families how to manage a variety of disease states through comprehensive health screenings, individualized health action plans and targeted health education.

“We are pleased to be able to offer this proven and effective program to other health plans and states,” said Daniel J. Hilferty, President and CEO, AmeriHealth Mercy. “Healthy Hoops not only increases access to necessary health care, it also improves health outcomes and overall quality of life for the participants.”

Begun locally in Philadelphia in 2003, the first Healthy Hoops program focused on asthma. The program was developed to combat a sharp increase in pediatric asthma diagnoses (and corresponding increases in ER visits and hospitalizations). The impact was immediate: Healthy Hoops participants realized decreases in ER visits and hospitalizations as well as increases in appropriate medication use and treatment compliance. Due to the success and effectiveness of the program, AmeriHealth Mercy expanded Healthy Hoops to target a variety of disease states including diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

For more information about Healthy Hoops, and how the program might benefit children in your community, please visit http://www.healthyhoopsprogram.com/.

With more than 20 years of experience exclusively serving the Medicaid population, AmeriHealth Mercy and its affiliates comprise the largest family of Medicaid-managed care plans in the United States, touching the lives of more than 2 million members nationwide. For more information, visit http://www.amerihealthmercy.com/.

AmeriHealth Mercy

CONTACT: Tasha Hillery, AmeriHealth Mercy, +1-215-863-5647,tasha.hillery@kmhp.com

Web site: http://www.amerihealthmercy.com/http://www.healthyhoopsprogram.com/