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July 18th, 2006 www.anthem.com
Denver, Colorado (April 3, 2007) – Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield today unveiled its Member Health Index (MHI), a comprehensive initiative designed to measure the improvement in the health of its members.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the first health benefits company in Colorado to directly link success in improving the health of its members with the compensation of every associate in the company. The MHI will measure the success of the company’s programs to better manage care and improve the health and wellness of members.
“The launch of our Member Health Index demonstrates how Anthem is poised to transform health care and become the most valued company in our industry. It is our goal to understand and be responsive to our customers’ health insurance needs, exceed their expectations in terms of service, and provide the tools and support they need to live healthier lives,” said John Martie, president and general manager of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Colorado.
The MHI is comprised of 20 clinical areas that reflect the quality of care an individual has received – some developed using national standards and others developed by clinical experts. These measures focus on prevention and screening, care management, clinical outcomes, and patient safety. Together, the measures will be combined in a proprietary statistical model to determine the quality of health care the company’s members receive year after year.
For example, for members who have diabetes, the index will help to measure if they are getting necessary eye exams, maintaining their blood sugar level to reduce complications and having their blood pressure level controlled. And for children, the index will measure if they received their immunizations. The resulting data will be analyzed in many different sub-populations, including Medicare beneficiaries, Medicaid members and large national employer groups in order to target improvement efforts.
As a part of this initiative, a portion of all Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield employees’ incentive income will now be tied to improvements in the member’s health index score. Linking progress to incentives represents an effort to ensure that all associates are fully engaged and focused on improving the lives of the people Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield serves and the health of its communities.
For each of the measures that make up the MHI, experts within the company will analyze the results and determine strategies to improve processes such as screening studies and outcomes of care such as optimal management of diabetes and heart disease.
“This is a bold commitment we are making to improve the health of our members,” said Dr. Sam Nussbaum, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s parent company. “We will work to maintain the health of our members through prevention and screening and seek to gain the best outcomes of care available. The MHI is a comprehensive initiative and will demonstrate how we’re working with our members and physicians and hospitals to improve health.”
A target performance goal for the year 2010 and has used 2005 data to calculate a baseline measurement. Each year, the objective is to improve the score reflecting that more of our members are receiving the care they need.
“We have set a high bar for success, and we are committed to making significant progress each year through existing and new health improvement programs,” said Dr. Nussbaum. “The measurement system we have developed will help provide us with an accurate assessment of the improvements in the health of our members at every stage of care. Research studies have demonstrated that individuals receive recommended care only 55 percent of the time. Our goal is to dramatically improve on that result.”
About Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Colorado
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s mission is to improve the lives of the people it serves. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Colorado is a subsidiary of WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP). WellPoint, Inc. is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and 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, Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), Wisconsin; and through HealthLink and UniCare. Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com.
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