Louisville, Ky. (January 13, 2009) – SHPS, a leading provider of health improvement and health benefits solutions, has been awarded Comprehensive Wellness Accreditation from URAC, a Washington, DC-based healthcare accrediting organization that establishes quality standards for the healthcare industry. SHPS received the URAC accreditation for its Carewise Personal Wellness program. Comprehensive Wellness is a new accreditation program from URAC with integrated program evaluation and performance measurement components, and SHPS is among only a handful of organizations to have received it.

Krishnan Sastry, SHPS’ executive vice president, strategic product development said, “There is tremendous variance in the wellness programs available to employers and many lack the rigor necessary to improve employee health or reduce the incidence of chronic disease. URAC accreditation is a critical benchmark for quality and provides employers with a basis for evaluating potential wellness vendors. Receiving URAC accreditation illustrates the quality of our Carewise Personal Wellness program and we’re proud to have earned it.”

Carewise Personal Wellness helps individuals adopt healthier lifestyles to maintain good health, prevent illness, and reduce the risk of chronic disease. It combines clinical nurse counseling and behavior change techniques with highly personalized care plans and visually appealing materials, providing a friendly, yet results-oriented solution to pre-disease health conditions in the workplace. SHPS launched its Carewise Personal Wellness in March 2008.

“By applying for and receiving URAC accreditation, SHPS has demonstrated a commitment to quality healthcare,” said Alan P. Spielman, URAC president and CEO. “Quality healthcare is crucial to our nation’s welfare and it is important to have organizations that are willing to measure themselves against national standards and undergo rigorous evaluation by an independent accrediting body.”

URAC’s Comprehensive Wellness Accreditation Standards
The growing popularity of wellness programs comes as more and more employers continue looking at innovative ways to control escalating healthcare costs for their employees. Employers know that improving healthy behavior early, before conditions reach chronic stages, will ultimately save costs versus trying to manage these conditions in an acute stage. The difficulty, however, facing the employer has been in choosing a wellness solution and feeling confident that the tools and methodologies used are sound and follow best practices for this growing industry.

With URAC’s introduction of its new wellness accreditation standards and measures, organizations now have a tool to evaluate sound business and evidence-based practices.

• Program scope and objectives: The standards require a comprehensive wellness organization to develop documents that address the risk types and interventions associated with the wellness program, and define the expected outcomes. The wellness organization provides communication materials about the wellness program to potential program participants.
  
  
• Assessment: Includes risk identification and risk awareness program components, such as the use of health risk assessments.
  
  
• Interventions: Addresses overall program design, health coaching, and use of consumer participation incentives, education, and communications aspects of wellness programs.
  
  
• Integration: Focuses on an organization's ability and willingness to coordinate with other organizations, operations, and programs already in place.
  
  
• Evaluation: Focuses on how the wellness organization calculates, measures, and reports participant progress and overall clinical and financial program success to the client.
  
  
• Measurement: Focuses on producing and reporting to purchasers and the public on a specified set of performance measures.

About URAC
URAC, an independent, nonprofit organization, is well-known as a leader in promoting health care quality through its accreditation and certification programs. URAC offers a wide range of quality benchmarking programs and services that keep pace with the rapid changes in the health care system, and provide a symbol of excellence for organizations to validate their commitment to quality and accountability. Through its broad-based governance structure and an inclusive standards development process, URAC ensures that all stakeholders are represented in establishing meaningful quality measures for the entire health care industry. For more information, visit www.urac.org.

About SHPS | Carewise Health
SHPS is a leading, independent provider of integrated health solutions that improve personal health and reduce spending. By integrating traditional health management and benefits administration services, SHPS delivers people-centric solutions that empower individuals to make wise healthcare choices. It serves large and mid-sized employers, government agencies, and third-party administrators through the company�s Carewise Health, Landacorp, and SHPS brands. Visit www.carewisehealth.com.

For More Information
LeAnn Ross
Director of Marketing
leann.ross@shps.com

(Return to News Releases)