AMS announces health care technology services practice; Provides strategic information technology solutions to competitive pressures faced by hospitals, health care providers.

FAIRFAX, Va.--(HealthWire)--June 19, 1995--American Management Systems (AMS), a leading business and technology consulting firm, announced it has formed a health care technology services practice which offers a range of services and products for major hospitals, health networks, and managed care entities.

"The health care industry is being reshaped by competitive pressures and the managed care revolution," according to AMS Chief Executive Officer Paul Brands. "Hospitals and other large health care providers must compete on multiple levels to attract patients, physicians, and third-party payers. Both insurers and government programs that pay for some health care services are forcing competition among providers to control costs. In addition, `capitated' prospective payment schemes, under which fees are determined in advance based on patient demographics, have introduced an unprecedented level of risk for major health care providers."

"The health care industry has responded to these pressures with strategies that require substantial investments in information technology," says AMS vice president Larry Seidel, who heads the new practice. "For example, hospitals are merging or affiliating to form large health networks -- requiring inter-institutional data access, architectural standardization, and large-scale data communications networks. Managed care entities such as health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations are combining insurance and health care functions -- demanding the integration of clinical and administrative systems to support competitive pricing, quality assurance, and high levels of customer service."

The new AMS practice will offer specialized services in strategic systems planning, document imaging and workflow applications, client/server software development, hospital information systems consolidation, and clinical data integration and access.

"AMS has already successfully helped hospitals and health networks achieve performance breakthroughs by applying advanced information technology to administrative and clinical functions," according to CEO Brands. "This new practice will better focus our analytical and technical resources on the problems of major health care providers, enabling us to deliver even more capabilities to current and future clients."

In recent years, AMS has provided information technology expertise to hospitals, state hospital associations, insurers, other commercial health care organizations, a nationwide organ sharing network, and the U.S. Department of Defense managed care programs. The company's health care projects have included strategic information systems planning and development, decision support systems, customer service applications, groupware-based systems, claims processing applications, financial accounting systems, and pharmaceuticals billing systems.

AMS also provides health care document imaging solutions using imaging platforms supplied by FileNet Corporation. AMS's products include two innovative, client/server based document imaging solutions for hospital patient accounting and medical records that were developed in partnership with the nation's largest not-for-profit health care system.

AMS's business is to partner with clients to achieve breakthrough performance through the intelligent use of information technology. AMS is a business and information technology consulting firm that provides a full range of services: business reengineering, change management, systems integration, and systems development and implementation. AMS, which recently completed its 25th consecutive year of growth, is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, with offices in 41 cities throughout North America and Europe. AMS's revenues for 1994 were $460 million.

CONTACT: American Management Systems

Charlene Baldwin

703/267-5035

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Ketchum Public Relations

Rick Leonard

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