NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE AND PFIZER INC PUBLISH STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Fifth edition of Quality Profiles™: The Leadership Series highlights successful efforts to integrate wellness and prevention into the health continuum

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), in collaboration with Pfizer Inc, today released a new publication profiling strategies and recommendations for improving the quality of care through wellness and prevention initiatives.

Quality Profiles™: The Leadership Series—Focus on Wellness and Prevention offers comprehensive, forward-thinking commentary on the need to advance a wellness and prevention agenda, while at the same time promoting evidence-based disease management.

“Helping people acquire the self-management skills they need to protect and improve their health and well-being is every bit as important as providing quality health care after a diagnosis," said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “This edition of Quality Profiles showcases proven, leading-edge approaches that plans and employers are using to integrate wellness and prevention into their health care improvement efforts.”

Wellness and prevention programs targeting cardiovascular disease, tobacco use, and obesity have the potential to improve quality of life and productivity and reduce the human and financial burden of preventable disease. These areas of focus are consistent with the goals of Healthy People 2010, a national effort to identify and address the most significant preventable threats to health in this country.

NCQA and Pfizer developed the fifth edition of The Leadership Series to provide direction and support to health plans, employers, and health care professionals as they promote healthier behaviors with the goal of advancing quality of life and improving clinical outcomes.

“Many diseases may be avoided or delayed through wellness and prevention efforts,” said Pfizer Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Joseph M. Feczko, M.D. “Our goal is to share practical examples of successful approaches that can serve as models of wellness and prevention interventions.”

This addition to the Quality Profiles series includes innovative case studies that support preventive health care, such as:

• The value of collaboration between a health plan and an employer in establishing a culture of wellness
• How to help members quit smoking for life
• How to impact employee health through worksite environmental and policy change
• The advantages of risk stratification for more appropriately designed interventions to help control high blood pressure
• Strategies to help empower employees to make healthy decisions

To obtain a copy of Quality Profiles™: The Leadership Series—Focus on Wellness and Prevention or a previous edition, Focus on Cardiovascular Disease, Focus on Depression, Focus on Diabetes, or Focus on Enhancing Care for Older Adults, contact 1-888-412-3090 or visit www.qualityprofiles.org.

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes physicians in key clinical areas. NCQA’s Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care.  NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices.

Pfizer Inc is committed to helping people improve their health by discovering and developing medicines, as well as informing consumers and healthcare providers about our medicines and the medical conditions they treat. Through multiple initiatives, Pfizer aims to ensure access to treatments and educate, empower and motivate consumers to take the necessary steps to lead longer, healthier, happier lives. Pfizer medicines help over 150 million people a year worldwide. Our goal at Pfizer is to discover and develop innovative medicines, help make them available to patients, share health information, and partner on public health programs.

ORGANIZATIONS CONTRIBUTING TO
FOCUS ON WELLNESS AND PREVENTION

Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, North Haven, Connecticut
Blue Cross of California, Camarillo, California
Cigna HealthCare, Chesterfield, Virginia
Foundation for Healthy Communities, Concord, New Hampshire
Health Net of California, Pasadena, California
Health Net of California, Rancho Cordova, California
Health Plan of New York—HIP, New York, New York
HealthAmerica, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Highmark Preventive Health Services, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
JEA Safety & Health Services, Jacksonville, Florida
MVP Health Care, Schenectady, New York
North Carolina State Health Plan, Raleigh, North Carolina
Scott & White Health Plan, Temple, Texas
USAA, San Antonio, Texas

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Quality Profiles is a trademark of NCQA; HEDIS is a registered trademark of NCQA. All rights reserved.