Update: Willis North America Partners with Healthcare Quality Ratings Firm
Thursday May 25, 3:05 pm ET
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2006--Willis Group Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE: WSH - News), the global insurance broker, announced today a strategic partnership with Health Grades, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGRD - News), an independent provider of interactive quality guides designed to help healthcare consumers find and evaluate information about hospitals, physicians, nursing homes and home health agencies.
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This new partnership will enable Willis to offer its North American clients access to web-based provider information that independently assesses hospitals, physicians, home health organizations and nursing homes on a range of criteria -- including cost, volume, length of stay, re-admissions, complications, patient satisfaction results, state averages for violations and inspections and more.
"Employers are asking their employees to be more educated about healthcare. Yet many employees rarely get the cost and quality-of-care information that is critical to making informed decisions," said Rick Elliott, President and CEO of Willis' Employee Benefits for North America. "For example, through HealthGrades an employee can determine if a specific physician is board certified in his/her specialty, the number of years in practice, any disciplinary actions taken against the provider, and what hospitals they are affiliated with. This is the kind of information HealthGrades provides that will allow people to make better personal health care choices."
Willis Group Holdings Limited is a leading global insurance broker, developing and delivering professional insurance, reinsurance, risk management, financial and human resource consulting and actuarial services to corporations, public entities and institutions around the world. With over 300 offices in over 100 countries, its global team of 15,800 Associates serves clients in 180 countries. Willis is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WSH. Additional information on Willis may be found on its web site: www.willis.com.
HealthGrades is the leading health care ratings company, providing ratings and profiles of hospitals, nursing homes and physicians to consumers, corporations, health plans and hospitals. HealthGrades' independent ratings and complete suite of health-management tools are relied upon by three million consumers each month as well as more than 125 of the nation's largest employers and health plans and more than 250 hospitals. More information on the company can be found at www.healthgrades.com.
Contact:
Willis Group Holdings, Ltd.
Investors:
Kerry K. Calaiaro, 212-837-0880
Email: kerry.calaiaro@willis.com
or
Media:
Dan Prince, 212-837-0806
daniel.prince@willis.com
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