Four Health Plans Win Pinnacle Awards from the Ohio Association of Health Plans

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Ohio Association of Health Plans (OAHP) is pleased to announce the 2010 winners of its Pinnacle Awards for best practices in the Business/Operational Performance, Health Care Programs, and Community Outreach and Partnerships categories.  

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a co-winner with Humana in the Business and Operational Programs category for the Availity Initiative.  The Availity Initiative is a partnership between Ohio health insurance plans and health care providers which optimizes the information exchange between multiple health care stakeholders through a single, secure network.  The online network helps providers conduct administrative functions, including claims inquiries, billing, pre-authorizations and eligibility inquiries for Ohio health plans. Ohio is one of two states in the nation participating in this pilot effort.

Anthem received the Pinnacle Award in the Community Outreach and Partnerships category for its Radio Disney "Move It!" Program, promoting healthy lifestyles to kids to help combat the obesity epidemic. Anthem sponsored Radio Disney's "Move It!" program, and it is estimated for the fall School Challenge, kids "moved" for 21,150,000 minutes.

Paramount Health Care was the winner in the Health Care Programs category for its renal management program "Aggressive Steps 2 Reduce the Burden of Chronic Kidney Disease."  The program identifies and intervenes early, resulting in significant decreases in acute care utilization rates at an annual cost savings of over $4,000,000 a year. The most important results achieved were no disease progression in 84% and disease regression in 7% of members.

AultCare was a Meritorious Award winner in the Health Care Programs category for its Education Kit Referral Program  The program decreased emergency room visits 10%, inpatient claims 37% and inpatient days 33%.

"Ohio's health plans have long played a vital role in improving quality of care and health outcomes for Ohioans," said Kelly McGivern, president and CEO of OAHP. "Ohio's health plans have created and implemented innovative initiatives that have improved quality in internal practices and administration, clinical disease management, delivery of programs and services and community outreach."

OAHP member plans are invited to participate in the annual Pinnacle Awards, which provides health plans an opportunity to demonstrate what they are doing to provide exemplary care and service for their members and community. A panel of health professionals judged the submissions and selected the winners.

SOURCE Ohio Association of Health Plans