WellCare And NCQA Partner To Provide Discount To Georgia Health Care Practices Seeking Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition

WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) have partnered to provide a discount to health care practices in Georgia that seek recognition as an NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). A PCMH is a way of organizing primary care that emphasizes care coordination and communication to provide higher quality and lower costs, while improving patient and provider experiences of care. 

WellCare of Georgia has offered a quarterly incentive payment program to practices that achieve NCQA PCMH recognition since January 2013. As a result of this support of the PCMH model, the health plan was recently recognized as a formal Partner in Quality with the NCQA’s PCMH Recognition Program. As an NCQA Partner in Quality, WellCare of Georgia is able to offer a 20 percent discount per clinician on the NCQA’s submission fee for PCMH recognition. Providers that are in WellCare of Georgia’s network and are either single-site providers or those that do not meet NCQA criteria as a “multi-site” practice group are eligible for the discount.

“We are thrilled to have WellCare as an NCQA Partner in Quality to help promote coordinated, quality care to their members,” said Margaret E. O’Kane, NCQA president. “WellCare knows that the NCQA PCMH program raises the bar in defining high-quality care and we are happy to support their strategy to expand coordinated care.”

“WellCare incentivizes our Georgia providers to become recognized as an NCQA PCMH because the model has been shown to foster strong physician-patient relationships, encourage proactive care coordination and increase quality of care for our members,” said Roman Kulich, WellCare’s region president, Georgia and South Carolina. “We continually strive to help our members achieve better health outcomes, reduce health disparities and ultimately reduce the long-term costs of health care.”

For more information about receiving the discount, participating providers should contact WellCare of Georgia at PCMH_GA@wellcare.com.

As of June 30, 2014, WellCare serves approximately 617,000 Medicaid members, 29,000 Medicare Advantage members and 53,000 Medicare Prescription Drug Plan members in Georgia.

About WellCare Health Plans, Inc.
WellCare Health Plans, Inc. provides managed care services targeted to government-sponsored health care programs, focusing on Medicaid and Medicare. Headquartered in Tampa, Fla., WellCare offers a variety of health plans for families, children, and the aged, blind, and disabled, as well as prescription drug plans. The company serves approximately 3.9 million members nationwide as of June 30, 2014. For more information about WellCare, please visit the company’s website at www.wellcare.com.

About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA’s website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. *HEDIS® is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

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