UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Florida Awarded NCQA Health Equity Accreditation

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) awarded UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Florida with its Health Equity Accreditation. This accreditation is awarded to organizations that lead the market in providing culturally and linguistically sensitive services, and work to reduce health care disparities.

NCQA is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to assessing and reporting on the quality of managed care plans, managed behavioral health care organizations, preferred provider organizations, new health plans, physician organizations, credentials verification organizations, disease management programs and other health-related programs.

Health Equity Accreditation is a nationally recognized Accreditation that purchasers, regulators and consumers can use to distinguish organizations that meet rigorous standards in serving a diverse population.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from NCQA, furthering our work to address and reduce health disparities for Floridians,” said Michael Lawton, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Florida. “This nationally recognized accreditation is an important standard for ensuring we are committed to leading the advancement of quality of care and equitable outcomes.”

Health Equity Accreditation through NCQA evaluates how well an organization complies with standards for:

• Organizational readiness.
• Race/ethnicity, language, gender identity and sexual orientation.
• Access and availability of language services.
• Practitioner network cultural responsiveness.
• Culturally and linguistically appropriate services programs.
• Reducing health care disparities.

“Cultural competency is crucial to providing high-quality health care,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “Organizations achieving Health Equity Accreditation are leaders in closing the ethnic and racial disparities gap, and NCQA commends them for their dedication.”

For more information about NCQA Health Equity Accreditation, visit www.ncqa.org.

About NCQA

NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA Accredits and Certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA's website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make informed health care choices. NCQA can be found online at ncqa.org, on Twitter @ncqa, on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/ and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.5 million physicians and care professionals, and more than 6,700 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.