NHIC’s Quality Management System

ISO 9001:2000 Certified Quality Management System

Quality and continual improvement is an integral part of NHIC’s culture. NHIC made the strategic decision and commitment to implement ISO 9001:2000 to move the company toward a culture of process management excellence and to improve the effectiveness of our critical business processes. The ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System is an internationally recognized method of providing high quality products and services. NHIC is proud to be one of the few Medicare contractors to have achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification for their entire organization.

Our Quality Management System is a documented system consisting of eight quality management principles. These guiding principles focus our organization on providing excellent customer service. NHIC’s Quality Management System fosters continual improvement and provides the foundation for achieving customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements through management responsibility and commitment; resource management; product and service realization; and measurement, analysis, and improvement.

NHIC has a commitment to quality. NHIC’s quality policy is communicated and understood by all associates and is reviewed during management review meetings for continued suitability.

NHIC’s Quality Policy

• To consistently provide customer value and satisfaction in service through world-class leadership, continual improvement, measuring results, employee development, recognition, and compliance.

Setting Goals and Objectives

Each functional area is responsible for establishing measurable quality objectives, consistent with our Quality Policy. These objectives are established at all levels of the company and are communicated to ensure they are understood. They are reinforced through periodic internal audits and management reviews.

What ISO 9001:2000 Certification Means

The NHIC Quality Management System is certified as compliant to the ISO 9001:2000 Standard. This means that:

a) NHIC established the Quality Management System to ensure the operation and control of all critical business processes meet or exceed customer requirements. NHIC has well-defined and documented processes for the management and control of all documents and records

b) NHIC associates have access to procedures, regulations, documentation, customer requirements and information necessary to support the operations of the company. Also, management ensures there are sufficient resources available for the efficient operation and monitoring of the quality management system.

c) NHIC associates are trained to use the appropriate tools needed to monitor and measure their processes, analyze the data obtained and implement improvements to meet or exceed customer requirements.

d) NHIC continually implements actions needed to meet or exceed customer requirements and to continually improve their processes. This enables NHIC to strengthen our client-focused organization and our culture of continuous improvement throughout the organization.

e) Performance evaluation against CMS and organization’s goals and objectives through fact-based decisions. Data analysis is used to assist in identifying any opportunities for improvement, or corrective or preventive actions needed. Over 140 quality objectives and performance requirements are monitored regularly through the NHIC Metrics Plan and dashboards.

f) A well-defined and documented procedure to prevent nonconformances and ensure corrective action is taken when a nonconforming product or service occurs.

With ISO 9001:2000 certification, NHIC has realized numerous benefits.

Testimonials:

Maria Fernandez, Claims Operations Manager

“ISO improved communications for our associates. Associates now have direct access to information about Medicare processes, metrics and results and they also have a better understanding of how everyone contributes to meeting our customer's requirements.”

Mylene Schader, Claims Operation Manager

“The ISO registration has impacted positively on the sense of team at NHIC at a national level; people have had to build relationships with individuals at other sites to ensure that we are operating with consistent processes at a national level.”

Patrick Steele, Customer Service Manager

“ISO has ensured that processes exist that enable all functional areas to work in a standardized fashion, nationally. As a result of ISO, we now have a centralized repository where we can find, store and update information needed to do our jobs…..and that information is consistent.”

Bryan Slinkard, Finance Manager

"The ISO:9001 registration has greatly enhanced our Quality Management System allowing us to streamline processes, gain efficiencies, and improve controls."

Travis Moore, Customer Service Manager

“ISO has provided a major communication tool for all NHIC employees to use when seeking information on just about every aspect of what we do here at NHIC. Everyone can be confident the information is current and consistent across all sites.”

Karen Grasso, Business Analyst

“Practicing a QMS as part of our day to day activities gives us a shared language to communicate about processes, programs and corrective actions.”

5/03/07