Dear U.S Lactnetters,

        At the Palm Beach County (Florida, USA) Breastfeeding Task Force
meeting this morning, we were presented with the opportunity to impact
insurance coverage of breastfeeding.

        There are accreditation standards for insurance carriers called
the Health Plan Employer Date and Information Set (HEDIS).  The HEDIS is
a set of 71 performance measures used to evaluate and compare health
plans.  HEDIS is set to be updated in 1998.  Breastfeeding education,
rates, etc are currently not areas addressed in HEDIS.  This needs to be
changed.

        The accreditation organization for group health plans is the
National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).  They update the HEDIS
only every couple of years.  Since we only heard about this today, and
this is the year they're updating, we have a golden opportunity here.

        Our efforts need to be completed by July 1, 1998 in order to meet
the HEDIS revision deadline.  (I know this group can handle that!)

        I will follow this post with a sample letter.

        Necessary addresses:

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
New Measures Development
2000 L Street, NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC  20036

Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation
1 Renaissance Blvd.
Oakbrook Terrace, IL  60181
Attn"  Department of Standards

Department of Health and Human Services
Director, Department of Vital Statistics
330 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC

        Thank you, fellow activists!


Margie Forrest, in HOT WPB, FL
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