Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Activates Landacorp's e-maxMC Internet-based Medical Management Application.Business Editors/Technology Writers ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 4, 2001 Landacorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOR) announced the successful activation of its e-maxMC(TM) Internet-based application at Blue Cross and Blue Shield Blue Shield A US not-for-profit health care insurer that is a reimbursement intermediary for physicians. Cf Blue Cross. of North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. (BCBSNC BCBSNC Bluecross Blueshield North Carolina ), that state's largest health insurer. Landacorp provides Internet- and Windows(R)-based medical management solutions to health plans and healthcare delivery organizations. e-maxMC is the web-enabling companion application to Landacorp's maxMC product, a comprehensive suite of medical management software solutions for health plans. By web-enabling maxMC, health plans can interact with their providers and/or members over the Internet to deliver consistent and appropriate medical care utilizing their preferred clinical guidelines and business process rules. BCBSNC's internal case managers now use maxMC to review and process incoming cases submitted via the web. Additionally, utilizing e-maxMC, their provider community can monitor case status and progress as these requests are managed to closure within the plan across the Internet. Both submissions and inquiries are processed in real-time, over the Internet. "This has been a truly collaborative effort between BCBSNC and Landacorp," said Brandon Raines, Landacorp's Vice President, Research and Development. "It has been a story of melding our respective assets to create a system that meets our objective of utilizing Internet technology to deploy medical management solutions." To achieve this, Landacorp implemented a set of business objects to support inpatient admission requests and inquiries. These e-maxMC business objects interact with the maxMC database and workflow engine Workflow engine is a software application meant to manage and execute modeled business processes. It is a key component in workflow technology. It will typically make use of a database server. to support browser-based transaction processing Updating the appropriate database records as soon as a transaction (order, payment, etc.) is entered into the computer. It may also imply that confirmations are sent at the same time. Transaction processing systems are the backbone of an organization because they update constantly. . The resulting Internet-based applications enable direct provider access to Landacorp's rich medical management database. "We integrated our business object technology with the standard workflow engine so that customers can leverage the same rules-based system extensions used by the core maxMC product," said Mr. Raines. "These business objects provide a powerful API that can be used to establish direct, real-time communications between payers, providers, and members. The resulting automation represents an opportunity for significant cost savings by eliminating many of the phone calls, faxes, etc. that are typically associated with the medical management process." Groundbreaking technological advancements overcome challenges The technologies being deployed at BCBSNC represent a significant step forward in deploying web-based applications for healthcare. "We chose BEA BEA - Basic programming Environment for interactive-graphical Applications, from Siemens-Nixdorf. (Nasdaq: BEAS) WebLogic(R)Server to host our Enterprise Java Bean See JavaBeans. (EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans) A software component in Sun's J2EE platform, which provides a pure Java environment for developing and running distributed applications. EJBs are written as software modules that contain the business logic of the application. ) business objects," added Mr. Raines. "The business objects are written in Java and access the same underlying Oracle(R) database used by maxMC. Additionally, the business objects interact with our CORBA-based workflow engine in order to route incoming requests to internal case managers." "BCBSNC chose to develop their own web-based application using Microsoft's(R) Active Server Pages (World-Wide Web, programming) Active Server Pages - (ASP) A scripting environment for Microsoft Internet Information Server in which you can combine HTML, scripts and reusable ActiveX server components to create dynamic web pages. IIS 4. technology. Consequently, one of the major challenges overcome during the implementation was to integrate the Microsoft-based environment with a Java-based environment," Raines continued. "We chose the JIntegra(TM) product for this implementation because it provided a scalable, efficient, and robust "bridge" between DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) Formerly Network OLE, it is Microsoft's technology for distributed objects. DCOM is based on COM, Microsoft's component software architecture, which defines the object interfaces. and Java. Finally, XML XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML's limitations. is used as a generic and portable messaging protocol The rules, formats and functions for exchanging messages between the components of a messaging system. The most widely used messaging protocol is the Internet's Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). for exchanging data between the EJB-based business objects and BCBSNC's web server/application." Addressing security issues Security is another excellent example of how Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and Landacorp leveraged their respective assets. Landacorp has developed an extensible, scalable security framework that provides services for authentication, checking user access rights, tracking user sessions A count of how many times all users access a Web site regardless whether the same person came back several times during the measurement period. If a user leaves and returns within a short time, some systems count those sessions as one. Contrast with unique visitors. See also user session. , and data encryption/signing. This security framework was flexible enough to enable implementation within BCBSNC's existing security infrastructure, avoiding the need for a secondary user login process. It also allowed BCBSNC to leverage its existing security database and user authentication See authentication. mechanism by having e-maxMC accept a verified or trusted user context. A successful and flexible solution The implementation allows BCBSNC to have complete control of the user interface for its web-based applications, as well as the associated security for accessing those applications. Data collected through the customizable user interface is passed, using XML, to Landacorp's business objects, which perform validation and business logic before interacting with Landacorp's medical management database. The result is an open API for extending the medical management process and optimizing communications by leveraging the Internet. About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is the state's largest health insurer with two million members and a 67-year history of delivering quality, innovative products and services to the people of North Carolina. BCBSNC has earned Commendable Accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance National Committee for Quality Assurance Medical practice A private, not-for-profit organization which has become the leading accreditor of managed care plans; in site visits, NCQA reviewers evaluate a managed care plan in terms of quality management, physicians' (NCQA NCQA National Committee on Quality Assurance, see there ), an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to measuring the quality of America's healthcare. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association
Landacorp and medical management Landacorp provides comprehensive, integrated end-to-end medical management services to healthcare payers and delivery organizations. Its Internet- and Windows(R)-based software help control the cost and improve the quality of healthcare delivery by automating and streamlining care coordination care coordination Managed care 1. The brokering of services for Pts to ensure that needs are met and services are not duplicated by the organizations involved in providing care 2. activities that include case and utilization management, care management, disease management, risk and quality management, and credentialing. Landacorp integrates its core medical management expertise with extensive and proven predictive and preventive population health management programs through its recently acquired ProMedex and PatientCentrix subsidiaries. And through its iHealthMedia division, Landacorp delivers interactive media strategies and Internet and extranet site development services to help payers and providers better connect with their stakeholders. Landacorp products are implemented at more than 180 client sites. Landacorp's corporate headquarters and sales and marketing offices are located in Atlanta, GA. Research and development and client services operations are located in Chico, CA. iHealthMedia is located in Portland, OR. ProMedex is located in Raleigh, NC. PatientCentrix is located in Montclair, NJ. Additional sales and service offices are located across the country. This release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Landacorp's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including those discussed in the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1 and other documents periodically filed with the SEC. Examples of such forward looking statements include statements about our ability to integrate our products with our clients' current information technology and the ability for our clients to realize an actual return on the investment in our solutions. Due to our reliance on certain third party tools, software and protocols, we may be faced by changes in technology or the success or failure of other technology businesses in continuing to support our products. Changes in the use of third party tools, software and protocols may cause additional unanticipated costs in our development that could reduce our ability to become profitable. If our products cannot be efficiently integrated into our clients' technology environment, clients will not be able to achieve any significant return on investment which will reduce our ability to market our products successfully and will reduce our ability to generate continued revenues from our marketplace. Browse the Landacorp website at http://www.landacorp.com Landacorp, ProMedex, PatientCentrix, iHealthMedia, Maxsys II, maxMC, and e-maxMC and their associated logos are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Landacorp, Inc. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. WebLogic is a registered trademark of BEA Systems. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion