Health Net Designs Toolkit to Help Improve the Patient Experience

Health Insurer Works Collaboratively with Health Care Providers to Improve Patient Care

LOS ANGELES, - Committed to building trusted partnerships with its health care providers and members, Health Net, Inc. (NYSE:HNT) has designed a toolkit to help its contracting health care providers improve the patient experience.

“We’ve identified that patients’ health outcomes can improve if the experience with their physician is a favorable one,” said Elaine Robinson Frank, director of Quality Improvement at Health Net. “We partnered with the California Quality Collaborative (CQC) to design the Improving the Patient Experience toolkit to support our contracting health care providers and help ensure the patient experience is as positive as possible.”

The toolkits, which are available to any Health Net contracting medical group or physician’s office in Arizona, California and Oregon, are “created using processes that can help improve access to care, enhance care coordination and stimulate greater communication between health care providers and patients,” said Robinson Frank.

“Our research shows that there are key elements of the care experience that are highly valued by patients, including communication with physicians and office staff and access to and coordination of care,” said Giovanna Giuliani, senior manager at the CQC, “and we want to help doctors and their staff understand these key elements and how to deliver on them.”

A “Well” Balanced Kit

Some inserts of the kit are translated into other languages, including Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese. Contracting physicians can request a DVD that includes physician testimonials on the positive effect that the recommended changes had on their practice and work life.

Some of the tool kit suggestions are:

* Opening same-day appointment slots to improve access to care by making room for urgent appointments and walk-ins.
* Sharing information with patients’ other health care providers to improve care coordination. “During a given year, a patient may see specialists and have laboratory work completed for various issues,” said Giuliani. “Notifying them of their lab results in a timely manner, reviewing their charts and discussing the outcomes of their specialist visits can contribute to a patient’s level of trust and confidence, as well as to better overall coordination of care.”
* Good physician-patient communication can result in strengthening patients’ sense of personal connection with and trust in their physician. “Doctors’ recommendations are more likely to be followed if there is clear and effective communication and if their patients trust them,” added Giuliani.

“We’ve seen a noticeable difference by using the kit,” said Vicki Medlen, director of Quality Improvement at North American Medical Management in California. “Using the agenda setting tool, we have been able to provide input for the physicians on how to implement changes. We’ve also included all the practice tips, over time, in primary care physician meetings, trainings, and in our provider newsletter. We appreciate Health Net’s work on developing the tool kit.”

Medical groups and physicians who contract with Health Net in Arizona, California and Oregon may request a toolkit by contacting the Health Net Quality Improvement Department via email at cqi_dsm@healthnet.com.

About Health Net

Health Net, Inc. is among the nation’s largest publicly traded managed health care companies. Its mission is to help people be healthy, secure and comfortable. The company’s health plans and government contracts subsidiaries provide health benefits to approximately 6.0 million individuals across the country through group, individual, Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE and Veterans Affairs programs. Health Net’s behavioral health subsidiary, MHN, provides mental health benefits to approximately 5.5 million individuals in all 50 states. The company’s subsidiaries also offer managed health care products related to prescription drugs, and offer managed health care product coordination for multi-region employers and administrative services for medical groups and self-funded benefits programs.

For more information on Health Net, Inc., please visit the company’s website at www.healthnet.com.