CLEVELAND, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Web Marketing Association (WMA) has recognized www.medmutual.com, the Web site of Medical Mutual of Ohio, with the highly coveted Best Insurance Web site and Standard of Excellence Awards for 2005 in the WMA’s annual Web site competition.
Medical Mutual previously won the Standard of Excellence Award in 2002 and 2003. The Best Insurance Web site honor is, however, a first for Medical Mutual.
Each WebAward entry is judged against a standard of excellence and then against other entries in the category. Judges include members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, content providers and webmasters. The Web Marketing Association was founded in 1997 to help set a high standard for Internet marketing and corporate Web development on the World Wide Web.
In regard to the award for The Best Insurance Web site, the WMA judges commented, “This site seems an excellent resource for the members, employers, brokers, and a full service for all aspects of the industry - very commendable to be actually so useful!”
Todd Jones, Medical Mutual’s senior Internet communications specialist and Web site production manager, said making the recently redesigned www.medmutual.com more customer/user friendly was the major goal. “The award for Best Insurance Web site and the judge’s comments are very gratifying, but so is the extremely favorable feedback we are receiving from our Medical Mutual customers,” said Jones. “A lot of long hours and hard work went into the Web site redesign and it is nice to get this major recognition.”
Chris Hoffman, Medical Mutual’s manager of Internet communications said the recently redesigned and overhauled Web site was under thorough scrutiny by the WMA panel of judges. “The Standard of Excellence recognition is very important because it is a highly critical examination conducted by industry experts and is certainly proof that our site is right on track from a usability and usefulness perspective,” said Hoffman. “Our Web team couldn’t be happier!”
Hoffman says medmutual.com contains many valuable features, both old and new. “The redesigned and reorganized site helps members find information with fewer mouse-clicks and faster. But all the same great content and tools are still there - we just made the site easier to use,” said Hoffman. “Members can still look up the status of a claim, through the “My Health Plan” section of the Web site, find a provider, and contact customer service, just like they’re accustomed to.”
Among the many new features are online health risk assessments, consumer- education tools and emailed news bulletins. “The Web site also offers information about our SuperWell(TM) health management programs; along with WebMD news and tools,” said Hoffman. “The HealthCare 101 section includes Health Estimator which enables a member to project health care costs and also displays the cost of the top 100 most commonly performed procedures that occur in either a hospital or doctor’s office. This is all part of a vast suite of tools available to members to help them to be informed healthcare consumers,” Hoffman said.
There is also enhanced security on the new MedMutual.com. Members can now create your own unique ID and password and after they register, they can take advantage of all the site’s helpful services.
Antares Management Solutions’ technical support helped Medical Mutual’s redesigned Web site in winning the 2005 WMA Awards. Based in Westlake, Antares Management Solutions offers state-of-the-art technology, administrative services and process design to businesses in the insurance and healthcare industries as well as other industries.
Founded in 1934, Medical Mutual is the oldest and largest health insurance company based in Ohio. The company serves its customers through high-quality, affordable group and personal health insurance plans, and third-party administrative services to self-insured group customers. Medical Mutual’s annual premium and service-generated revenue in 2004 was $2 billion. Based in Cleveland, Medical Mutual also has offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton and Youngstown. For more information, visit the company’s award-winning Web site at www.medmutual.com.
Now in its eighth year, The WebAward Competition for Web site development is conducted by the Web Marketing Association, Inc. WMA, an independent volunteer organization founded with the purpose of evaluating, recognizing and increasing the standard of excellence on the World Wide Web. Its Web site is located at www.webaward.org.
Medical Mutual
CONTACT: Ed Byers, Media Relations Specialist of Medical Mutual,+1-216-687-2685, or ed.byers@mmoh.com
