NCQA recognizes Cigna with Physician and Hospital Quality Certification for third time

Cigna CorporationAug 9 2013

The strength of Cigna's (NYSE: CI) physician and hospital performance measurement programs for quality and cost has again been recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Cigna has earned Physician and Hospital Quality (PHQ) Certification for the third time. The NCQA Physician and Hospital Quality (PHQ) Certification program evaluates how well health plans measure and report the quality and cost of physicians and hospitals.

“By earning PHQ Certification, Cigna has shown its commitment to quality includes transparent, rigorous review of the physicians and hospitals with whom it works”

The company earned the "Certification" status for Cigna's physician quality measurement programs - Physician Quality & Cost Efficiency Displays and Cigna Care Designation. Certification status was also achieved for Cigna's hospital quality measurement program, Centers of Excellence. This Certification applies to markets across the country where physician and hospital quality and cost information is currently provided to Cigna customers.

"By earning PHQ Certification, Cigna has shown its commitment to quality includes transparent, rigorous review of the physicians and hospitals with whom it works," said Margaret E. O 'Kane, NCQA president. "That measurement, transparency, and collaboration between organizations are the cornerstones of better care."

"This recognition confirms that the information Cigna provides our customers about quality and cost can help them make better, more informed decisions when choosing doctors and hospitals," said Dr. Dick Salmon, Cigna's national medical director for performance measurement and improvement.

Cigna offers award-winning resources to help people learn more about the quality and cost of the health care they choose, including:

• Physician Quality & Cost Efficiency Displays - Cigna provides information on quality and cost-efficiency for primary care physicians practicing in internal medicine, family practice and pediatrics, as well as for physicians practicing in 19 other specialties. This information helps distinguish physicians based on performance standards under specific quality and cost measurements.
• Cigna Care Designation - A select group of physicians earn this designation for offering the best combination of quality and cost. Employers may choose an enhanced benefit design which gives individuals a small incentive to seek care from a designated specialist. The Cigna Care designation and benefit enhancement are available in 69 markets around the country.
• Cigna Centers of Excellence - This tool provides star-based scores for hospitals on patient outcomes and costs for 31 procedures and conditions.

"Cigna provides easily accessible information to customers to help them make informed choices. If everyone enrolled in a Cigna health plan used this information to choose a hospital, they would experience care from hospitals that earn among the highest rankings for health outcomes while reducing their hospital costs, on average, by nearly 22 percent," said Dr. Salmon. "Similarly, if everyone enrolled in a Cigna health plan used this information to choose a physician, clinical quality indicators would improve while the cost for specialty care would decline by as much as 16 percent."