HealthAmerica? and HealthAmerica Advantra? Rank Among America's Top 20 Health Plans



HealthAmerica's Commercial and Medicare Advantage Plans Among Tops in Nation for Quality and Service on U.S.News & World Report/NCQA ?America's Best Health Plans 2008-09? List

Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pa. ? November 10, 2008 -? HealthAmerica's HMO, POS, and Medicare Advantage plans were ranked among the nation's top 20 best commercial and Medicare health plans according to a joint ranking by U.S.News & World Report and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Nationally, HealthAmerica was ranked 12th among 287 commercial plans; HealthAmerica's Medicare Advantage plan, Advantra, ranked 18th among 216 plans nationally.

HealthAmerica and HealthAmerica Advantra have ranked as one of the top 50 best health plans in the U.S. News/NCQA ?America's Best Health Plans? list* every year since 2005.

?We are honored to be recognized among the best health plans in the nation,? said Kirk E. Rothrock, president and chief executive officer of HealthAmerica. ?We are dedicated to providing the best possible quality and service, so we are pleased to see our efforts recognized by NCQA, U.S. News and World Report, and, most importantly, by our members and our customers.?

The National Committee for Quality Assurance and U.S.News and World Report collaborated to rank the nation's best commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid health plans. The ranking appears in the November 17 issue of U.S.News

HealthAmerica's and Advantra's rankings are based on their Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS?)** 2008 scores and the results of a Consumer Assessment of Healthcare and Provider Systems (CAHPS) survey of members. HEDIS is a set of standardized performance measures covering effectiveness of care, preventive care, treatment, and customer satisfaction. CAHPS is a standardized survey in which members rate the quality of care and service that they receive from doctors, specialists, office staffs, and insurers.

In these ratings, HealthAmerica's commercial health plans were rated higher than the national average in all 15 key measures of medical services and member satisfaction and higher than the Pennsylvania state average in 12 of the 15 key measures

HealthAmerica's HMO, POS, and Medicare Advantage plans? status of ?Excellent? from NCQA was also a factor in determining the U.S. News/NCQA ?America's Best Health Plans 2008? ranking

The U.S.News/NCQA ?America's Best Health Plans 2008? list is drawn from measures of prevention, treatment, and customer experience. These measures are compiled in NCQA's Quality Compass? 2008, which publicly reports comparative results of more than 400 commercial health plans covering 85 million Americans. Health plans throughout the country were evaluated on issues such as access to care, prevention efforts, treatment of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and members were surveyed on their satisfaction to calculate an overall quality score.

America's Best Health Plans? is a trademark of U.S. News & World Report.

HEDIS? is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

The source for this data is Quality Compass? 2008 and is used with the permission of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Quality Compass is a registered trademark of NCQA. NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. The 12 measures are: Child immunization (combo II), well child visits 3 to 6 years, colorectal cancer screening, prenatal care, first-trimester postpartum care, cervical cancer screening, breast cancer screening, diabetes-lipid profile (screen), controlling hypertension, cholesterol screening for patients with cardiovascular conditions, rating of all health care, rating of health plan.

National Committee for Quality Assurance accreditation outcomes are: Excellent, Commendable, Accredited, and Denied. Applies to HMO and POS plans.

Quality Compass? is a registered trademark of NCQA. NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality.

About HealthAmerica

For over 33 years, HealthAmerica has provided health benefit solutions to employers across Pennsylvania. HealthAmerica offers a broad range of traditional and consumer-directed health insurance products, including managed care, HSAs, self-funded, Medicare, indemnity, nongroup plans. Serving 12,000 businesses and over 660,000 members as of December 31, 2007, in Pennsylvania and Ohio, HealthAmerica offers progressive medical management, innovative wellness programs, and statewide and national provider networks. HealthAmerica is ranked as one of ?America's Best Health Plans, 2006? by U.S. News & World Report; its HMO and POS products have an "Excellent" accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. HealthAmerica has corporate offices in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and employs over 2,200 people in the commonwealth.