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New NCQA Rating Helps Employers Gauge Top Wellness Plans

BALTIMORE, MD (November 23, 2009) — CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) has been accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its workplace wellness program.  CareFirst's designation as "NCQA Accredited" is the result of a rigorous assessment process that measured 10 areas for providing effective wellness and health promotion. NCQA established the program to help employers evaluate independent, standardized results on wellness programs and choose the best fit for their organizations, based on demonstrated quality and value.  This is the first year for the NCQA Wellness and Health promotion accreditation program.

"CareFirst places a high value on wellness and preventative health, and this NCQA accreditation is consistent with the effort we put in to helping our employer groups support their workplace wellness needs," said Richard Safeer, M.D., CareFirst’s Medical Director for Health Promotion and Disease Management.  "We strongly encourage all of our employer groups to take part in the many workplace wellness programs we have to offer."

NCQA, in December 2008, launched its wellness accreditation program with 16 health care organizations in various parts of the U.S.  To date, CareFirst is among the first 12 to qualify for the accreditation.  Participants earn the "NCQA Accredited" designation by demonstrating how they focus programs to fit employer needs for workplace wellness, safeguard private information, and facilitate action to improve individual health.  The 10 rating criteria are Employer and Plan Sponsor Engagement, Privacy and Confidentiality, Engaging the Population, Health Appraisal, Identification and Targeting, Self-Management Tools, Health Coaching, Right and Responsibilities, Measuring Effectiveness and Delegation of Wellness and Health Promotion.

To highlight its offerings, CareFirst has created a comprehensive on-line wellness how-to program for employers to improve the personal health of their employees and lower health costs.  Available at www.carefirst.com/workplacewellness, the program is free to employers with fully insured products through CareFirst.  Among the resources available are step-by-step instructions for planning a workplace wellness program, an easy-to-access library to find all of CareFirst's wellness-related materials, CareEssentials (CareFirst's care management program), monthly webinars and access to consultations by health promotion specialists.

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA evaluates, accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes physicians in key clinical areas.  NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care, protecting the lives of more than 100 million Americans.  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.

In its 72nd year of service, CareFirst, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit health care company which, through its affiliates and subsidiaries, offers a comprehensive portfolio of health insurance products and administrative services to nearly 3.4 million individuals and groups in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. Through its CareFirst Commitment initiative and other public mission activities, CareFirst supports efforts to increase the accessibility, affordability, safety and quality of health care throughout its market areas.

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