Contact:
Patricia Simino Boyce
(516) 209-5294
psboyce@ipro.org
Dennis Tartaglia / Rebecca Janoff
212-481-7000
In-kind Donation to be Used for Consumer Outreach
Lake Success, NY, May 29, 2008 – IPRO, an independent, not-for-profit organization that evaluates and works to improve the quality of health care, announced today that it has received a grant through Google’s AdWords program. The donated advertising on Google will link users with IPRO’s consumer-directed sites.
“We are very appreciative of Google’s grant, which will help us enormously in our efforts to make health care consumers aware of their rights and to publicize data on health care quality and cost,” says Spencer Vibbert, Vice President, Communications and Corporate Development, IPRO. “Google is one of the Internet’s most heavily used search engines, and we expect that our advertising will drive many people to this free consumer-focused Web content who might not ordinarily access it.”
Google has worked with IPRO to come up with a number of sponsored ads that appear at the top or side of search pages when New York-based users type in certain terms. For example, an IPRO ad appears at the top of the screen after typing “hospital report card” during a Google search. Clicking on the IPRO.org link takes users to a page on IPRO’s site that includes links to six publicly available report cards on hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies and health plans. By typing in “quality of care complaints,” users see an IPRO ad that takes them to a site featuring information on how to file Medicare quality of care complaints.
As part of its grant to IPRO, Google will donate up to $10,000 a month in ads. Ad costs are estimated based on the number of times people click on them. At $1 a click, up to 10,000 people a month will be able to click on the Google-sponsored IPRO ads.
The Google Grants program supports organizations sharing Google’s philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts. Designed for 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program harnessing the power of the Google AdWords advertising product. Google Grants has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education.
“The Internet is a prime source of health information for American consumers,” says Jaz-Michael King, Senior Director, Communications and Corporate Development, IPRO. “As a result, we have created our own tools for evaluating health care performance, such as the New York Regional Health Care Report Card. We have also aggregated other sites that provide the most reliable and valid performance data on health care providers and payers, such as public reports developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the New York State Department of Health. Google’s ads will enable many more people to access these sites through the main portal of IPRO.org.”
With more than 20 years of experience in health care quality improvement and evaluation, IPRO holds major contracts with state and federal governments to review the cost and quality of services provided to Medicaid recipients, Medicare beneficiaries, and patients enrolled in managed care organizations and to work with the health care community to improve those services. IPRO also manages the Medicare-designated End Stage Renal Disease Network of New York. Based in Lake Success, New York, IPRO also holds contracts with private-sector clients to improve the quality of privately financed services.