AvMed and HealthSpring to Integrate McKesson Products for Improved Care Management.

Business Editors/Health Writers

NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 19, 2002

AvMed, Florida's largest not-for-profit HMO, and HealthSpring, a Tennessee-based community health plan and Middle Tennessee's only Medicare+Choice plan, will both use McKesson's CareEnhance(TM) products to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their care management programs.

In a five-year agreement, AvMed plans to implement and use four McKesson products to better serve its 250,000 members: InterQual(R) Criteria, CareEnhance(TM) Care Manager, CareEnhance(TM) Care Strategies, and CareEnhance(TM) Care Link. These tools for utilization, case and disease management work together seamlessly, enabling health plans to more effectively manage care and maximize resources.

HealthSpring, which has 50,000 members, is a long-term user of McKesson's InterQual Criteria. The plan now adds CareEnhance Care Manager and CareEnhance Care Strategies to its portfolio of care management tools in a three-year agreement.

CareEnhance Care Manager is workflow software that allows case managers to efficiently coordinate care for health plan members. The two health plans will fully integrate InterQual with this tool, allowing their case managers to easily draw on the criteria to ensure appropriate, consistent, and patient-specific clinical decisions. Using the two products together also creates a centralized record of member information and establishes a link between reviews and authorizations that further promotes care consistency.

"Our case managers will use Care Manager throughout the course of their workday to track and care for our members," said Dr. Bruce Weiss, senior vice president and chief medical officer at AvMed. "With online access to InterQual built in to their standard workflow tool, the case managers can easily and directly attach documentation about relevant care guidelines to their patient files, streamlining our workflow and minimizing duplication of effort."

CareEnhance Care Strategies, which both plans will also use in conjunction with CareEnhance Care Manager, supplies clinical frameworks to guide case managers as they work with members suffering from high-cost conditions and high-prevalence diseases. These customizable strategies facilitate a higher degree of care consistency while promoting individual treatment plans.

All of McKesson's care management applications electronically capture critical information about care processes, information that can then be mined to feed quality improvement programs. For example, case managers may require training in a particular area, or physicians may need to communicate more effectively with their patients.

"The structures, the platform--everything McKesson has built into this product allows us to adapt our processes with a little bit of creativity. We like that kind of flexibility," said Wendy Bottomley, vice president of health services at HealthSpring. "In addition, we're now able to measure medical management processes and assess the case management value we are bringing back to our members."

AvMed will also use CareEnhance Care Link, which allows providers and their office staffs to process and track referrals and authorizations as well as check on eligibility and benefit coverage over the Internet. Provider offices also can obtain basic information about their patients being supported through case management.

"McKesson is unique in its multidisciplinary approach to care management," said Dr. Paul Steen, vice president of product management and clinical development at McKesson. "Our goal is to continue to help our clients find answers to their wide variety of clinical and business challenges with integrated tools from one source."

About AvMed

AvMed is Florida's only statewide not-for-profit health plan, providing quality health care in all major metropolitan areas of the state. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has awarded AvMed an accreditation status of Commendable for service and clinical quality that meet or exceed the NCQA's rigorous requirements for consumer protection and quality improvement. AvMed holds this accreditation for both its commercial and Medicare products in all of its regional markets.

About HealthSpring

HealthSpring was established in 1984 and provides health benefits through a network of 35 hospitals and more than 3,000 physicians. HealthSpring serves over 30,000 employees and dependents in its commercial benefit plans. In addition, HealthSpring manages Medicare benefits for nearly 21,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Middle Tennessee. As the only locally owned and operated Medicare+Choice plan in Middle Tennessee, HealthSpring covers more than basic Medicare and most supplements combined.

About McKesson Corporation

McKesson Corporation is the leading provider of supply, information and care management products and services designed to reduce costs and improve quality across healthcare. Founded in 1833, with annual revenues of more than US$50 billion, McKesson ranks as the 31st largest industrial company in the United States. Through its McKesson Health Solutions business unit, the company offers integrated specialty pharmacy services for payors, providers and manufacturers, employing multi-channel distribution services, reimbursement, reporting, and marketing and patient management support services to reduce overall medical costs and improve patient outcomes.

McKesson Health Solutions also offers a comprehensive suite of medical management services and technologies to help payors better manage the cost and quality of care. Its CareEnhance(SM) solutions include InterQual(R) clinical appropriateness criteria; products and services for case, disease, and utilization management and nurse triage; and software tools and applications that support health information, referral, workflow, analysis and reporting processes.