Care Choices HMO Ranked Among "America's Best Health Plans" According to U.S. News & World Report/NCQA

Health Plan is top-rated in Michigan

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., Oct. 3, 2005—U.S. News & World Report/NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) today released its first ever report on health plans—“U.S. News & World Report/NCQA America’s Best Health Plans 2005.”* Care Choices HMO is ranked as #7 among 257 Commercial plans nationwide. It is the top-rated plan in Michigan.

“Care Choices is extremely proud to be included among the best health plans in the nation,” said William R. Alvin, CEO of Care Choices. “The fact that U.S. News & World Report teamed with NCQA to publish these findings should give businesses and consumers confidence in using this information when making decisions about their health plan. Our employees and provider partners have worked very hard to provide quantitative evidence that we do indeed provide exceptional quality health care and customer service to members and employer groups.”

The ranking is based on five measures:

• Access to Care: Consumer experience with getting needed care, getting care quickly, and health plan customer service.
  
• Overall Satisfaction: Consumer perceptions about how well doctors communicate, as well as ratings of personal doctor or nurse, specialist seen most often and overall health care.
  
• Prevention: How often preventive services are provided (e.g., childhood and adolescent immunizations, prenatal care, mammography, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening, well-child visits, etc.)
  
• Treatment: How well health plans take care of people who have health problems, such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, alcohol and drug dependence, mental illness and whether physicians advised smokers to quit.
  
• Overall Quality Score: A combination of the measures in the four main categories above as well as the NCQA accreditation standards score.

“While Care Choices HMO does not provide direct clinical care, as a part of the health-care system we partner with our providers to support their delivery of excellent care,” said Gilbert Burgos, MD, MPH, CPE, Chief Medical Officer at Care Choices. “Our rating on these measures demonstrates our dedication to making sure people get the right care, in the right place, at the right time. We are committed to delivering exceptional clinical quality, and customer satisfaction. This report provides meaningful information about the care that our members receive.”

An important feature of the “U.S. News & World Report/NCQA America’s Best Health Plans 2005” is that consumers can go on-line to view specific information about how health plans compare on a number of meaningful measures. For example, “The Living with Illness” report (which falls under the ‘treatment’ measure) shows how well plans treat four of the most important chronic illnesses—diabetes, heart disease, asthma and mental health.

“We like to see our role as the integrator of care that helps bring together all the parts of the health system—physicians, employers, pharmacists and patients,” said Alvin. “We’re in the unique position of having a broad view of the entire continuum of health care and customer service provided to our members. We’re proud of our role and how we’re able to help keep people healthy, while also finding ways to provide the most efficient care.”

For more information about the “U.S. News & World Report/NCQA America’s Best Health Plans 2005” report, click here.

NCQA is a not-for-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®, the tool the nation’s health plans use to measure and report on their performance. NCQA launched this new data as a response to requests from employers, consumers and regulators for adding more detail to their quality reports.

About Care Choices
Care Choices is a health benefits management company and a subsidiary of Trinity Health, one of the nation’s leading providers of health care services. Since 1986, Care Choices has been providing quality health care coverage to thousands of members throughout Michigan. The Care Choices suite of products includes Care Choices HMO, Care Choices PPO, Preferred Choices PPO and consumer-directed plans. Care Choices offers a broad, fully integrated network of physicians, hospitals and other health care professionals all sharing a strong commitment to improving the health status of the communities it serves by delivering effective and affordable health care. Care Choices HMO maintains the highest rating available of Excellent by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

*“America’s Best Health Plans” is a trademark of U.S. News & World Report.