UnitedHealthcare recently recognized Core Physicians with the 2015 UnitedHealthcare PATH Excellence in Patient Service Award for their commitment to improving health outcomes for people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans. This recognition included all primary care practices in Exeter, Stratham, Hampton, Epping, Kingston, Durham and Plaistow.
The PATH program was created to help people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage plans be as healthy as possible by encouraging greater use of preventive health care services and proactive monitoring of chronic conditions.
The program annually rewards physicians who meet certain performance-based criteria, including achieving or exceeding targets established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for specific Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measures. Health plans and CMS use HEDIS as a tool to measure performance on important dimensions of health care and service.
Examples of the quality measures used to evaluate Core’s performance in the 2015 PATH program include the percentage of members who received a mammogram screening or colonoscopy screening, as well as medication adherence for members with diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. The measures were based on the CMS 5-Star Rating system. Core received 5 Stars on seven of the measures (the highest rating) and 4 Stars on one of the measures.
“We are proud to receive this award, which is a tangible recognition of the collective effort throughout our organization to improve the health of our communities, including the importance of preventative care as well as management of health conditions,” said Deb Cresta, president, Core Physicians.
Core Physicians was specifically recognized for the number of patient assessment forms (PAFs) completed for Core patients. Core completed 85% of the PAFs for the overall population and 97% of the PAFs for the diabetic population. The program requirement was 60% for each of these populations.