Press Releases: 2002

AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan Upgraded To Excellent Accreditation by NCQA

Harrisburg, PA - The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) upgraded AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan’s accreditation status from "Commendable" to "Excellent." AmeriHealth Mercy’s accreditation status upgrade is based on the organization’s 2002 HEDIS®1 results.

"Achieving NCQA’s ‘Excellent’ Accreditation status, NCQA’s highest accreditation level, is a significant achievement," said Margaret E. O’Kane, President of NCQA. "It is only awarded to those plans that meet or exceed NCQA’s rigorous requirements for consumer protection and quality improvement and have HEDIS results in the highest range of national performance."

The NCQA Standards of Accreditation are intended to help organizations achieve the highest level of performance possible, reduce patient risk for untoward outcomes and create an environment of continuous improvement. The NCQA accreditation process evaluates how well a health plan manages all parts of its delivery systems – physicians, hospitals, other providers and administrative services – in order to continuously improve health care for its members.

HEDIS (the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set) is a set of standardized performance measurements designed to ensure that purchasers and consumers have the information they need to reliably compare the performance of managed health care plans. The performance measures in HEDIS are related to many significant public health issues such as cancer, heart disease, smoking, asthma and diabetes. HEDIS® also includes a standardized survey of consumers' experiences that evaluates plan performance in areas such as customer service, access to care and claims processing.

"It’s a great honor to receive the accreditation upgrade to ‘Excellent’," said Daniel J. Hilferty, President and Chief Executive Officer of AmeriHealth Mercy. "All of our associates have done an outstanding job to achieve this special recognition from NCQA."

Sherry Knowlton, Vice President and General Manager for AmeriHealth Mercy (Pennsylvania) offices commented, "We are so proud to receive the ‘Excellent’ accreditation. We work very hard to ensure that AmeriHealth Mercy not only meets but exceeds quality and performance standards for our members."

Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a regional corporate office in Harrisburg, AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan is a Medical Assistance managed care plan currently serving more than 68,000 Medical Assistance recipients in the ten-county Lehigh/Capital area of Adams, Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Northampton, Perry, and York Counties. AmeriHealth Mercy also serves members in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties.

Owned by AmeriHealth, Inc., a subsidiary of Independence Blue Cross, and Mercy Health System, AmeriHealth Mercy and its affiliated plans have nearly twenty years of experience exclusively serving Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) populations.