Horsham, PA, | PR Web | October 19, 2011 — CarePartners Plus, LLC was recently awarded the esteemed Gold Award for Best Practices in Consumer Protection and Health Information Decision Support from URAC during the organization’s 12th annual Quality Summit and Awards Program in Chicago. Chosen by an independent panel from over 200 nominations, the Gold Award is the second highest of five awards given by URAC, the nation’s leading healthcare accreditation organization. URAC sponsors the annual Summit to recognize companies with “best practice” programs for the advancement of consumer protection and empowerment.
“We were proud to have been included on a distinguished list of finalists last May, but when we were awarded the Gold Award, we were absolutely elated,” says Michael Manning, co-founder and CEO of CarePartners Plus. “We knew we had an innovative product that enables our customers to more efficiently satisfy many of the new health reform quality expectations, but to be recognized by URAC over many other reputable companies is a profound acknowledgment of the hard work our employees do every day to improve healthcare for everyone.”
Horsham, PA-based CarePartners Plus, a young healthcare data and information company, is best known for the Wellby™ Solution, a patented, electronic data access method that uses a consumer-directed process to engage the patient while connecting them with their healthcare professionals.
Co-founder Martha “Marty” Minniti, RN, BS, says, “We were excited that after comparing our innovation to that of other companies, URAC recognized Wellby as the most efficacious patient empowerment tool to help improve clinical quality.” She notes that many CarePartners Plus clients using the Wellby Solution appreciate the product’s value in accelerating medical home certification and enhancing patient protection and safety.
Minniti believes the Wellby Solution now rivals the services of leading patient satisfaction, wellness, medication safety and clinical quality assessment companies. “Wellby is able to collect electronically generated information about healthcare visits directly from patients immediately following their visits, and then translate this information into national compliance and quality improvement outcomes that validate performance while identifying gaps,” she says. This electronic method of collecting information engages patients in their healthcare in ways that surpass inconsistent, laborious paper-based and telephone collection methods as well as sampling methods that produce incomplete and untimely information.
Wellby gives the treating physicians and other stakeholders valuable insights into the care that’s been delivered from the perspective of the patients. “It is truly a transformative system” says Dr. Kim Kuhar, a practicing physician outside of Philadelphia, PA. “Using Wellby in my practice is a rewarding experience for both me and my patients. My patients enjoy using it to convey their feedback while becoming more involved in improving their personal healthcare outcomes. It makes it easier for me to engage my patients and to continuously learn from them. It’s an easy way to constantly improve the quality of service I provide to my patients.”
Industry leaders have remarked that the Wellby™ Solution is a transformative innovation that addresses patient engagement and patient-reported outcomes at a time when market forces expect patients to take more ownership in improving the quality of their personal care. Through Wellby and other innovative products and services, CarePartners Plus strives to improve the delivery of patient-centered quality healthcare and reduce costs throughout the entire healthcare system.
According to Gordon Woodrow, senior vice president for CarePartners Plus, “When I was Region III HHS Director, the major stumbling block to a clear and economically viable electronic healthcare process was how to quickly and reliably empower providers to work with their patients and encourage them to become a full and participating partner in their care. Wellby™ not only does that, it also gives instantly verifiable, standards-based data to offer a return on investment for everyone, the most important being the patient.“
CarePartners Plus is preparing to commercialize Wellby™ by launching a national campaign in 2012. “Our goal is to empower every patient at every healthcare visit across the country,” says Manning. The solution is available for approximately 30 cents per member per month. An American-made product, – Manning believes “patient-reported outcomes data is the new frontier for discovering what works and what does not work in healthcare. We are very excited that by empowering individuals with IT tools to improve their health and the healthcare system we are providing a market solution that neatly fits into the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan while creating new job opportunities and work for thousands of Americans.”
For more information, visit www.carepartnersplus.com and www.wellby.com, or send an email to Richard Fiske at rfiske@carepartnersplus.com.
About CarePartners Plus, LLC (www.carepartnersplus.com). CarePartners Plus is an independent third-party data and information company founded five years ago by healthcare professionals with the goal of improving healthcare quality while reducing costs. The founders’ objective was to facilitate a healthcare system that engages patients and their families in new ways to strengthen their partnerships with their physicians and healthcare providers.