CareAdvantage announces plans with Blue Cross of Idaho and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont.

ISELIN, N.J.--(HealthWire)--August 14, 1995--CareAdvantage Inc. (CRVA-Bulletin Board) and Blue Cross of Idaho today announced plans to create a joint venture medical management company. Blue Cross of Idaho will hold majority ownership of the Idaho-based enterprise.

The joint venture is expected to provide care management for Blue Cross of Idaho's 282,000 customers and employees beginning this fall, once final contract details and closing provisions are completed. In addition, the company will market utilization review and management services to prospective customers throughout Blue Cross of Idaho's market area.

Utilization review efforts will focus on those areas where there is the greatest potential for quality improvement and cost reduction, including diseases with significant variation in patient treatment and those where the patient's understanding and poor compliance with recommended treatment results in poor outcomes and unnecessary costs.

Management services will include disease management, focused inpatient pre certification and concurrent review, and individual benefits management. Disease management centers on health care services associated with chronic, high-cost medical conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory diseases. Individual benefits management provides case management of catastrophic, high-cost illnesses or injuries where the quality of care can be improved and overall costs reduced by tailoring benefit coverage to the individual customer's needs.

"Creating our own medical management company through this joint venture with CareAdvantage enhances our ability to focus on the needs of our customers during periods of illness," said Tracy Andrus, vice president of public affairs and corporate communications for Blue Cross of Idaho. "Meeting the individual needs of our customers while at the same time reducing the cost of providing catastrophic care is the win-win situation we are seeking." ^ Blue Cross of Idaho's is Idaho's largest health insurer, providing indemnity and managed care services to one out of four Idahoans through the state's largest contracted provider network. Blue Cross also operates Idaho's largest HMO and has been at the forefront in the development of community-based integrated delivery systems. Revenue for the non-profit mutual insurer in 1994 was $258.8 million.

In an unrelated development, CAI also announced it has executed a Letter of Intent with the statewide Blue Cross and Blue Shield health service organization of Vermont to create a new care management capacity for Vermont Blue Cross and Blue Shield which will include acute care utilization management services, incuding focused precertification and concurrent medical review services; major case management; and disease management services. CareAdvantage and Vermont Blue Cross and Blue Shield intend to reach a definitive agreement later in the Fall.

CareAdvantage, headquartered in Iselin, works in conjunction with health insurance, managed care and other health care organizations to provide cost-effective, high quality health care through the implementation of highly effective utilization, medical-surgical, and disease management services.

CONTACT: Hancock Communications

William Hancock, 201/744-5803

or

Blue Cross of Idaho

Tracy Andrus, 208/345-4550