Hudson Health Plan | MARGARET LEONARD OF HUDSON HEALTH PLAN IS NAMED ‘NATIONAL CASE MANAGER OF THE YEAR’ BY THE CASE MANAGEMENT SOCIETY OF AMERICA

MARGARET LEONARD OF HUDSON HEALTH PLAN IS NAMED 'NATIONAL CASE MANAGER OF THE YEAR' BY THE CASE MANAGEMENT SOCIETY OF AMERICA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2006

(Tarrytown, NY) … Margaret (Peggy) Leonard, MS, RN, C, FNP, CM, Vice President for Clinical Services at Hudson Health Plan, received the National Case Manager of the Year Award from the Case Management Society of America (CMSA) at its annual conference in Grapevine, Texas, on June 15th, Georganne Chapin, President and CEO of Hudson Health Plan, announced today. The award recognizes Ms. Leonard's significant contribution on a national level to the field of case management. Case managers assess, plan, implement, coordinate, monitor, and evaluate the care options and services required to meet an individual's health and human service needs.

"As a result of Peggy's vision and hard work, more Hudson Health Plan members receive the health care services they need," said Ms. Chapin, who called Ms. Leonard an early pioneer in case management. In the early 1990s, Ms. Leonard founded the Brooklyn Chapter of CMSA and introduced the concept of case management to Visiting Nurse Services of New York. She also led the development of the American Nurses Credentialing Center's nurse case management certification exam and is the immediate past Chairperson of its Nurse Case Management Expert Panel. Additionally, she is a member of the CMSA National Board of Directors.

Regionally, Ms. Leonard is helping to standardize and improve case management among New York State health plans. She shares the role of co-chair of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Case Management Work Group with Foster Gesten, MD, Medical Director of the NYSDOH Office of Managed Care. "Peggy is at the center of a very crucial component of our statewide initiative to improve care for individuals with complex, chronic health care needs," Dr. Gesten noted. "This important and ambitious project was largely her idea and she has been instrumental in bringing it to fruition."

Ms. Leonard, a resident of Tarrytown, NY, and Niskayuna, NY, joined Hudson Health Plan in 1998 and established its Clinical Department, which now has 18 nurse case managers and bilingual case management assistants. "Case management can mean the difference between life and death for many of our members, many of whom are economically disadvantaged and unaccustomed to dealing with the complexities of our health care system," explained Ms. Chapin. "Here, case management involves more than providing health care services. To be effective, case management also has to deal with non-medical issues that prevent people from getting the right care, such as transportation, emotional trauma, and language barriers."

Among the Hudson Health Plan case management programs that Ms. Leonard has implemented are:

Mommy & Me, which encourages mothers-to-be to seek early prenatal care and well-baby care for children up to two years of age
Living Well with Diabetes, to educate and assist health care providers in the use of care guidelines for patients living with diabetes
Breathe Easy, to provide better care and home visits for children with asthma
The Special Care program to assist members with disabilities
A pediatric lead-poisoning case management program which collaborates with the Westchester County Department of Health to assess, treat, and assist children with lead poisoning and their families
HIV case management, to ensure that patients living with HIV and AIDS receive the latest therapy combinations recommended by the National Institutes of Health
Complex case management, to ensure that Hudson Health Plan members diagnosed with complex medical conditions receive high quality health care services across the continuum of care.

"It's wonderful to be honored by the CMSA and to bring national recognition to Hudson Health Plan and its innovative achievements in case management," Ms. Leonard said. "We believe managed care is the ideal environment for building meaningful case management programs, and we will continue designing new ones to engage both members and providers in improving member health."

About Hudson Health Plan
Founded in the mid-1980s by a coalition of community health centers, Hudson Health Plan works to serve the best interests of its members and providers. The Tarrytown based not-for-profit organization has nearly 60,000 members in Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, and Dutchess counties in New York's lower Hudson Valley. A leader among health plans, Hudson Health Plan has been driving health care innovation by developing technology to support clinical quality initiatives and streamline the enrollment process for Medicaid Managed Care, Child Health Plus, and Family Health Plus.

Hudson Health Plan is the winner of the 2006 Poughkeepsie Journal Diversity in the Workplace Award; the 2005 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Corporate Award for diversity from the YWCA of White Plains and Central Westchester; the 2005 Advancements in Health Care Award from Hudson Valley Life and Hudson Valley Parent; and the 2003 Community Leadership Award from New York Health Plan Association.

About the Case Management Society of America
Established in 1990, the Case Management Society of America has over 9,000 members and is an international non-profit 501(c)(6), multi-disciplinary, professional organization dedicated to the support and advancement of the case management profession. Since its inception, CMSA has been at the forefront of setting professional standards for the industry, which allows for the highest level of efficiency and integrity, as well as developing national and local leaders who are recognized for their practice and professional excellence.

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