UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Mississippi has been awarded Health Equity Accreditation status by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). This accreditation is granted 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 by:

• Building an internal culture that supports the organization’s external health equity work.
• Collecting data that help the organization create and offer language services and provider networks mindful of individuals’ cultural and linguistic needs.
• Identifying opportunities to reduce health inequities and improve care.

“We are pleased to receive this recognition, which recognizes our dedicated contributions, efforts and commitment to reducing disparities and improving health outcomes for the members we serve,” said Dr. Michael Parnell, CEO, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Mississippi. “We strongly believe that every individual deserves access to high-quality, person-centered care and we will remain determined to identify opportunities to reduce health inequities and improve care in our communities.”

NCQA’s Health Equity Accreditation evaluates how well an organization complies with standards in the following areas:

• 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.

Some recent examples of UnitedHealthcare’s contributions to addressing health equity and social determinants of health in Mississippi include:

• $500,000 in Empowering Health grants to nonprofits helping uninsured individuals and underserved communities in areas such as food insecurity, social isolation or health literacy.
• $169,500 in funding to the University of Mississippi Medical Center to support children, their families and the provider community with local professional sickle cell disease expertise and behavioral health support and services.
• Investment of $3 million in an affordable housing development, which will provide 76 new units to residents in Jackson.

“The prevalence of racial and ethnic disparities has been a barrier to improving the quality of health care of many Americans for too long,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “Organizations achieving Health Equity Accreditation are leaders in closing this 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 7,000 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.

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