Quality Health Plans Of New York Earns Perfect Scores For Customer Service

Online, November 28, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Quality Health Plans of New York, Inc. (QHPNY) has announced that it has received perfect scores from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in several customer service categories related to call center performance.

The Medicare Advantage HMO outshone its competitors by earning results that were nearly 20% higher than the national averages recorded in specific categories of the 2013 Call Center Monitoring Accuracy & Accessibility Study. This study is used by CMS to ensure that Medicare Part C and Part D call centers that serve prospective enrollees are compliant with CMS call center standards in the following areas: communication with hearing- or speech-impaired callers via TTY, availability of interpreters for callers with limited to no English proficiency and accuracy of plan information provided by customer service representatives.

According to the results of the study, QHPNY's call center achieved scores of 100% for customer service on calls when text telephone (TTY) devices were used. The Medicare Advantage HMO earned results of 100% for call center performance related to both its Part C and Part D programs. These scores indicate that callers using TTY devices were able to communicate 100% percent of the time with someone who could answer their questions, either through direct communication with a customer service representative at Quality Health Plans of New York's call center or via a relay operator calling the QHPNY customer service phone line on their behalf. QHPNY's scores were 19% higher than the average results across all Medicare Part C and Part D contracts in the program. The national averages were 81%, while this Medicare Advantage HMO achieved perfect scores of 100%.

"We at Quality Health Plans of New York are proud to have achieved such outstanding customer service results at our call center," says QHPNY President Dr. Haider A. Khan, M.D. "It is further proof of our commitment to providing both current and prospective plan members with the most effective and highest caliber service in the healthcare industry."

In addition to delivering such impressive results in the category of TTY functionality, QHPNY also earned excellent marks in the area of interpreter availability. The organization received a Part C result of 100% and Part D result of 96%, due to its adeptness at providing interpreters to foreign language speakers calling its customer service phone line. These scores signify how often callers were able to speak with and pose questions to someone conversant in their non-English language, with the following sample of languages tested: Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. QHPNY achieved scores that were significantly higher than the national averages. The average Part C result for all non-English languages combined was 89% and the average Part D result was 87%, while QHPNY scored 100% and 96%, respectively.

Having earned such high scores for TTY functionality and interpreter availability, QHPNY exceeded the CMS compliance standards in those categories. CMS also found Quality Health Plans of New York to be compliant with its call center standards in the area of information accuracy, with QHPNY achieving excellent scores in this category.