Over the years Optima Health has garnered numerous accreditations, awards and commendations. A few include:
Health Plan Excellence
NCQA stands for National Committee for Quality Assurance. Each year they evaluate health plans across the nation to help employers and consumers distinguish between plans based on quality and value. The Accreditation process uses a unified set of standards for HMOs, MCOs, PPOs and POS plans.
The NCQA has recognized our quest for excellence by awarding our Commercial HMO/POS, Commercial PPO and Medicaid HMO products with various Accreditation statuses.
Optima Health manages health insurance products under two different names –Optima Health Insurance Company and Optima Health Plan. We have obtained different levels of Accreditation for the products under each name—an "Excellent" Accreditation status for our Medicaid HMO since 2000 and our Commercial PPO since 1998.
Only the best health plans in the nation receive an “Excellent” Accreditation status from NCQA. Plans must meet or exceed NCQA’s rigorous requirements for consumer protection and quality improvement and deliver excellent clinical care.
NCQA is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to measuring the quality of America’s healthcare. NCQA’s "Excellent" level is the highest accreditation status, and is granted after a rigorous survey of the health plan that is overseen by a national panel of physicians. We invite you to visit their website for more information on health plans across the nation at www.ncqa.org.
A+ Rating from Weiss Ratings
Since 2004,Optima Health has received an A+ rating from Weiss Ratings, Inc for financial soundness, recognizing its ability to withstand severe economic adversity and showing exceptional financial strength.1 Weiss Ratings is the nation’s leading independent provider of ratings and analyses of financial services companies, mutual funds, and stocks.
The rating recognizes Optima Health as an outstanding insurer offering excellent financial stability for its customers, vendors, and employees. Fewer than five percent of the nation’s HMOs and health insurers meet the ratings’s criteria for exceptional financial strength by Weiss Ratings.
Health Information Resource Center
Optima Health’s Eating for Life program received the 2008 National Health Information Award at the Bronze level in the category Total Health Information Program, Hospital and Health Care Systems. The awards program, in its 15th year, is the most comprehensive competition of its kind and is organized by the Health Information Resource Center, a national clearinghouse for consumer health information programs and materials. 2
The Eating for Life program is one of many health and wellness programs offered by Optima Health to its members. Program materials include a DVD and workbook for adults to learn about healthy eating and exercise. The objectives of the program include: participants will make healthy food choices with regard to fat, salt and sugar both at home and at restaurants; evaluate their daily caloric needs and expenditure; assess food labels; and develop improved exercise habits.
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
The Optima Family Care Program was awarded the 2008 Community Leadership Award from America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) for its Girls Community Basketball Program. The award was presented at AHIP’s annual meeting, Institute 2008, in San Francisco, California on June 18, 2008.
Optima Health launched the Girls Community Basketball Program in 1998 in partnership with the Norfolk Department of Neighborhood & Leisure Services. The program has since expanded to serve more than 1,400 at-risk middle school girls in 31 cities and counties throughout the state of Virginia. The program has grown to four leagues in the following locations: Southside Virginia (Halifax County), Hampton Roads, Winchester/Shenandoah Valley, and Central Virginia.3
#1 Integrated Health System
For the second year in a row, Sentara Healthcare, Optima Health’s parent company has been ranked as the top most Integrated Healthcare System in the nation according to SDI and Modern Healthcare Magazine.
The only healthcare system in the country to be among the nation's top 10 for all 14 years of the survey, Sentara has landed at number one in 2001 and consecutively in 2010 and 2011. SDI is a healthcare analytics company that conducts and annual assessment of the 100 most highly integrated healthcare networks (IHNs). SDI's report is regarded as the nation's premier rating system by evaluating IHNs on their performance and degree of integration.
As an integrated healthcare system Sentara provides services that cover in and outpatient healthcare services, including physician practices, advanced imaging and diagnostics, long term care, home healthcare services, medical transport and air ambulance services, as well its health plan, Optima Health.4
Incentive-Based Wellness Programs
Optima Health and Sentara Healthcare have received several awards for Sentara’s incentive-based wellness program Mission: Health. The program saved Sentara $3.4 million in healthcare costs. For every dollar spent to incentivize employees to improve their health, Sentara saved $6. The program was launched in 2008 to over 11,200 benefit-eligible Sentara employees in Virginia and North Carolina. Sentara partnered with Optima Health, as its insurance carrier, to help manage employee health costs by developing an employee wellness program. Nearly 80 percent of employees participated in the program, which demonstrated significant clinical improvements in risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), exercise and tobacco use.
Optima Health was a finalist in the Employee Health Category for the 2011 Virginia Healthcare Innovators Award5 and was a Finalist in the Wellness/Prevention Category for the 2011 Case In Point Platinum Awards!6
Additionally, Optima Health received an Honorable Mention in the 2011 C. Everett Koop National Health Award for the success of the wellness program Mission: Health. The C. Everett Koop National Health Award recognizes employers that have instituted quality health promotion and disease prevention programs that both improve employee health and reduce spending. The health programs recognized are selected for their success in achieving high employee participation rates, following evidence-based guidelines for health promotion tactics, demonstrating large reductions in health risks, and are cost saving.7
1 Weiss Ratings Award Letter, January 2011, www.weissratings.com
2 Optima Health News Release, September 16, 2008
3 Optima Health News Release, June 19, 2008
4 Sentara Healthcare News Release, January 24, 2011
5 www.virginiahealthcareinnovators.org
6 Optima Health News Release, October 19, 2010
7 Optima Health News Release, November 18, 2011