One of the regions largest health care insurers has honored a physicians' group at Caritas Carney Hospital in Dorchester.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has named the Caritas Carney Independent Practice Association to its 2004 Honor Roll for its exceptionally high quality scores in disease prevention and treatment of chronic illnesses. Caritas Carney's IPA was one of only 75 physician groups nationwide to score in the ninetieth percentile as reported by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, which measures physician groups for quality against benchmarks of the national Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set.

The Caritas Carney IPA's physician members provide adult and pediatric primary care and specialty services in allergy, anesthesiology, cardiology, dermatology, emergency medicine, endocrinology, gastroenterology, general and vascular surgery, gynecology, infectious disease, nephrology, neurology, neurosurgery, oncology, ophthalmology, oral surgery, orthopedics, otolaryngology, pain management, plastic surgery, podiatry, psychiatry, pulmonary medicine, radiology, rheumatology and urology.

The award was made by Charles D. Baker, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care president, to Mark Berenberg, MD, medical director of the Caritas Carney IPA's local care unit for the insurer, and accepted at a reception last month at the insurer's headquarters in Wellesley.

Caritas Carney Hospital is a teaching affiliate of Tufts University School of Medicine and a member of Caritas Christi Health Care, the second largest health care system in New England.