Health Net of Arizona Insurance Receives NCQA's Highest Status

2008-08-07 20:10:12 -

www.healthnet.com - Health Net of Arizona, Inc. Lori Rieger, 602-794-1415 www.healthnet.com Health Net of Arizona, Inc., a subsidiary of Health Net, Inc. (NYSE:HNT), today announced that the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has awarded an accreditation status of "Excellent" for service and clinical quality to its Commercial HMO line of business. The accreditation is a three-year designation and is effective July 11, 2008 through July 11, 2011.

NCQA Accreditation evaluates how well a health plan manages all parts of its delivery system in order to continuously improve health care for its members. "Earning 'Excellent' Accreditation reflects a health plan's ability to work with its member's physicians to improve the quality of clinical care," according to Margaret E. O'Kane, NCQA president. "It shows that the plan is building the kinds of partnerships that are critical to delivering great care and great service."

NCQA accreditation is a voluntary review process and includes rigorous on-site and off-site evaluations of over 60 standards as well as selected HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) performance measures.

The current NCQA scoring allocates 35.7 percent of the total score to HEDIS. HEDIS is a registered trademark of NCQA and is a set of standardized performance measures designed to ensure that purchasers and consumers have the information they need to reliably compare the health care quality.

NCQA's mission is to improve the quality of health care and its accreditation standards are purposely set high to encourage health plans to continuously enhance their quality. These standards make up the remaining 64.3 percent of the survey. This is the first year NCQA integrated Member Connection and Care Management & Health Improvement Standards into the survey process.

"We are very proud to receive NCQA's highest status rating. It highlights our ongoing commitment to providing our members with quality health care," said Chuck Sowers, president of Health Net of Arizona.

For More Information

Health Net Inc. Online Newsroom

Health Net Member Web Site

NCQA Web Site

About Health Net

Health Net, Inc. is among the nation's largest publicly traded managed health care companies. Its mission is to help people be healthy, secure and comfortable. The company's health plans and government contracts subsidiaries provide health benefits to approximately 6.7 million individuals across the country through group, individual, Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE and Veterans Affairs programs. Health Net's behavioral health subsidiary, MHN, provides mental health benefits to approximately 6.9 million individuals in all 50 states. The company's subsidiaries also offer managed health care products related to prescription drugs, and offer managed health care product coordination for multi-region employers and administrative services for medical groups and self-funded benefits programs.

For more information on Health Net, Inc., please visit the company's Web site at www.healthnet.com.

Cautionary Statements

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical information provided herein, may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's analysis, judgment, belief and expectation only as of the date hereof, and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "may," "should," "could," "estimate," "intend" and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially due to, among other things, rising health care costs, negative prior period claims reserve developments, trends in medical care ratios, unexpected utilization patterns or unexpectedly severe or widespread illnesses, membership declines, rate cuts affecting our Medicare or Medicaid business, issues relating to provider contracts, litigation costs, regulatory issues, operational issues, health care reform and general business conditions. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the risks discussed in the "Risk Factors" section included within the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date of this release.

"Excellent" Accreditation Status Reserved for Nation's Best Health
Plans