Catholic Healthcare West to Use McKessonHBOC's Clinical Appropriateness Criteria.

Health and Medical Writers

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2000

McKesson HBOC, Inc. (McKessonHBOC) (NYSE:MCK) today announced that it has been awarded a contract to supply its InterQual(R) Criteria to Catholic Healthcare West (CHW). Under terms of the agreement, CHW's case management and discharge planning staff will use the Intensity/Severity/ Discharge (ISD(R)) Acute Level of Care Criteria for adult and pediatric patients to communicate to the 8,600 clinicians in its 48 hospitals.

"We are excited about licensing McKessonHBOC's InterQual Criteria because they combine an emphasis on clinical appropriateness with cost-effectiveness," said Gayle Riley, director of medical management at CHW. "The Criteria are patient-specific and ensure that every patient receives necessary care -- something that is important to us, our patients and our providers." She added: "The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) in its efforts to ensure appropriate care for the Medicare population advocates the use of InterQual Criteria to help determine patient admission needs and discharge readiness; this obviously adds to our confidence in using InterQual."

McKessonHBOC's InterQual Criteria are designed to optimize recovery by enabling healthcare professionals to provide appropriate and consistent medical care. "Because the Criteria are developed by healthcare professionals for healthcare professionals, they help providers reach their goal -- the implementation of best medical practices to achieve measurably improved clinical outcomes," said Christopher Bishop, senior vice president and general manager of McKessonHBOC's InterQual Products Group.

ISD Acute Level of Care Criteria help facilities assess the clinical appropriateness of the patient's admission to, continued stay in and discharge from the acute-care setting. The tools help manage the patient's changing severity of illness across the care continuum by using objective clinical findings to identify when the patient is ready for transfer to a less acute setting.

CHW, a non-profit healthcare system, operates facilities and medical groups throughout California, Arizona and Nevada. CHW is committed to providing compassionate, high-quality, affordable healthcare to the communities it serves. For more information about Catholic Healthcare West, visit www.chw.edu.

McKesson HBOC, Inc., a Fortune 40 corporation, is the world's largest pharmaceutical supply management and healthcare information technology company. McKessonHBOC provides pharmaceutical supply management and information technologies across the entire continuum of healthcare, including market-leading businesses in pharmaceutical and medical-surgical distribution, information technology for healthcare providers, services for payors and outsourcing.

McKessonHBOC's InterQual Products Group is the worldwide leader in the development of utilization review criteria for the healthcare industry. InterQual Products Group develops and maintains a wide variety of clinical decision support criteria that help improve care and manage resources by screening for clinical appropriateness. InterQual Criteria are used by more than 1,900 hospitals in the United States and cover 110 million insured lives. They are used by more than 750 licensed health plans, major indemnity insurers, Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, as well as the Department of Defense, the Department of Veteran's Affairs and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). For more information about InterQual products, visit its World Wide Web site at http://www.interqual.com or call 1-800-582-1738.