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Show The Park Record tSat/Sun/Mon/Tues, November 22-25 2008 Report rates Utah's health plans Executive Director. "We're pleased to note that many important measures, like childhood v (Salt Lake City, UT) - immunizations, have increased sig"Understanding what a health plan nificantly since we began monitor';can do for you and your family is ing health plan performance in more important than ever. The 1996." The report describes how Utah "2008 Performance Report for Utah Commercial HMOs and Medicaid HMOs are performing in selected & CHIP Health Plans," released areas of health care. Results show today by the Utah Department of all commercial HMOs either met or 'Health (UDOH) Health Data exceeded national averages in proCommittee (HDC) and Division of viding child immunizations and Health Care Financing, evaluates blood sugar testing for diabetics. 'quality of performance and member Over the past five years, the rate of !,sat is faction of selected Utah health pregnant women in commercial plans covering more than 900,000 HMOs who receive timely prenatal care increased 26 percent. members across the state. Commercial HMOs were above ' Performance measures come "from data collected by Utah health national averages for effective plans as well as a consumer satisfac- treatment of children with asthma, tion survey. Participating commer- though they scored lower than cial HMOs were: Altius Health national counterparts in preventive Plans, Regencc HcalthWise, Select care and access measures like breast Access, and UnitedHealthcare of cancer screenings, well-child visits, Utah. Participating Medicaid and children's access to primary HMOS included Healthy U and care providers. -Molina Healthcare of Utah, as well Medicaid H,MOs scored higher as two plans administered by than the national average on sever'UDOH: Select Access Preferred al performance measures, including 'llProvxler Network and the Fee for children's access to primary care, Service Plan. Two Children's timeliness of prenatal care, child' Heal.h Insurance Program (CHIP) hood immunizations, and eye 'plans are also included: Public exams for diabetics, but could Employees Health Program and improve in providing chlamydia Molina Healthcare of Utah. screenings for women ages 16 to 25. '•" "This report will help health Utah's CHIP HMOs were on par plans identify areas for improvewith or above national averages for mentthat will ultimately benefit the child immunizations and well-child 1 entire health care system," said Dr. visits, but could do better in the 1 David N. Sundwall, UDOH treatment of children with upper SUBMITTED BY Utah Department of Health respiratory infections and adolescent immunizations. The 2008 Performance Report also details results of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey conducted by independent research firm DataStat, Inc. in the spring of 2008. A total of 4,509 parents answered the survey, including: 1,325 parents of children enrolled in commercial HMOs; 1,857 parents of children enrolled in Medicaid health plans and; 1,327 parents of children enrolled in CHIP HMOs. The survey measured consumer satisfaction in several areas of care and service received from the health plan in the past year. Commercial health plans exceeded national averages in measures like doctor communication and overall rating of health plan, but ranked lower in getting needed care. Nearly nine out of 10 (89.5%) respondents were satisfied with the health care • they received. Medicaid and CHIP health plans scored above national averages in most customer satisfaction measures, including ratings for physicians, specialists, and health plan overall. Customer service rated below national average in all three reporting categories: commercial, Medicaid, and CHIP For a copy of the report, which includes graphics that illustrate performance measures and survey outcomes, please visit http://health. utah.gov/hda/reports/2008/hmo/. Thanksgiving fire-prevention tips SUBMITTED BY National Fire Protection Association ,< In 2006, Thanksgiving Day topped the charts once again as the peak day for home cooking fires. According to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) repo'ls, there were 1.400 home structure fires involving cooking . equipment that year, which is : more than three times the daily • average. / Cooking is the leading cause of .[home fires and home fire injuries. >iEacr year, hundreds of people in -ihe United States are killed in fires ',' that involve cooking equipment /and thousands more are injured. Annjally, these fires result in ijnort than half a billion dollars in >direct property damage to homes and iheir contents. "Cooking fires can easily be prevented by following a few simple precautions, such as staying in the kitchen when preparing a meal because fires often start when items cooking are left unattended," said Lorraine Carli, NFPA's vice president of communications. "'As much as unexpected guests are sometimes a part of the holidays, you don't want the fire depariment arriving because your feast is going up in flames." NFPA utters these tips for safer cooking: • Stand by your pan • Stay in the kitchen when you are trying, grilling, or broiling food. • If you must leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove. • II you are simmering, baking, boiling or roasting food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that the stove or oven is on. fJ(i ^. • Keep in mind that you should avoid wearing loose clothing or dangling sleeves while cooking. Loose clothing can catch fire if it comes in contact with a gas flame or electric burner. • Keep kids away from cooking areas by enforcing a "kid-free zone" of 3 feet (1 meter) around the stove. • If you have young children, use the stove's back burners whenever possible, and turn pot handles inward to reduce the risk that pots with hot contents will be knocked over. • Never hold a small child while cooking. • Keep anything that can catch fire-pot holders, oven mitts, wooden utensils, paper or plastic bags, food packaging, towels or curtains-away from your stove top. • Clean up food and grease from burners and the stove lop. For more information and additional safety tips on cooking and other topics visit www.nfpa.org. Stay home this Saturday We'll bring the newspaper *&jiWf;.,The..Pgrk Record. Now vdth home delivery. 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