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Farmington, CT - February 8, 2007 - ConnectiCare has received the exclusive “Excellence in Practice” Award from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) for its innovative program “The Royal Treatment.” Only twelve organizations internationally have been selected for “Excellence in Practice” top honors. The program was developed to raise the performance bar on ConnectiCare’s already excellent service and customer satisfaction.

“Excellent customer service has been a hallmark of ConnectiCare’s success, but it is an upwardly moving target, which makes this award so meaningful for us. As consumers become exposed to more innovative, exceptional service encounters, customer service expectations increase for all service interactions. The service bar is always rising,” says Director of Quality Improvement Robin Clarke, “and we’re aiming to be #1.”

Chosen among 12 of 89 entries to receive the top honor of Excellence in Practice, the ASTD award recognizes organizations that demonstrate industry-wide success as a result of employee learning and development. As ASTD puts it, “We are looking for organizations that get it: They create, support and champion learning opportunities for results and a learning culture. Top honors go to those organizations with practices that have demonstrated clear and measurable results in achieving organizational goals.”

ConnectiCare launched “The Royal Treatment” program in 2005. The Royal Treatment consists of activities and challenges, each focused on an aspect of the service interaction. Call Center representatives who master all of the challenges are delivering “The Royal Treatment” to their customers. The program’s success has helped ConnectiCare achieve its ranking for the second year running as the 6th Best Health Plan in America by US News & World Report and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

What is most unique about the Royal Treatment Program is the emphasis on self -assessment and self-analysis by each representative relative to each call. Each service representative identifies calls that they believe demonstrate mastery of the elements of the “Royal Treatment”– activating a positive attitude, exceeding customer expectations, handling difficult calls, and thoroughly documenting information. These calls are then reviewed by an internal customer service auditor to validate the service representative’s mastery of the program element. The program has raised Member Services quality scores by 6% since 2004 and Provider Services quality scores by 2% over the same period.

The creation of the “The Royal Treatment” program was a collaborative effort between the Operations Quality Improvement Department and the Service Center Management Team. ConnectiCare will be acknowledged for the top honor of Excellence in Practice Award at the ASTD International Conference in Atlanta in June, 2007.

The American Society for Training and Development is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals. ASTD’s 70,000 members and associates come from more than 100 countries and thousands of organizations – multinational corporations, medium-sized and small businesses, government, academia, consulting firms, and product and service suppliers.

Others competing in the international contest for the top honor included companies such as FEDEX, Daimier Chrysler Motors Company, Ford Motor Company, IKEA, Farmers Insurance Group and Hewlett-Packard Company.

ConnectiCare is a managed care company based in Farmington, Connecticut and a member of the HIP Family of Health Plans. ConnectiCare serves nearly 235,000 members. The company was home-grown in Connecticut and has over 500 employees who reside mainly in the Hartford area. ConnectiCare was recently ranked 6th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report/NCQA list of America’s Best Health Plans® 2006. ConnectiCare is the only Connecticut health plan listed in the top ten.

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