Cogent Inc. Signs Agreement for Inpatient Management Program With Humana in Central Florida; Cogent Now Contracted With Most Managed Plans in This Region.

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 19, 2001

Cogent Healthcare Inc., a leading provider of inpatient management programs, has signed an agreement with Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM), one of the nation's largest publicly traded health benefits companies, to provide an inpatient management program for the Central Florida region.

"We are excited about this new partnership with Humana Inc.," said Alan Puzarne, CEO of Cogent Healthcare, Inc. "We are seeing more interest from health plans and hospitals in the outsourcing of inpatient management services due to the intensive pressure they are under to provide the best quality of care while at the same time improve efficiency and lower costs. Our model uses `best practices' clinical systems and support for the hospitalist physician plus the latest information technology to improve quality of care, reduce medical errors, ensure safety, and remove barriers to the efficient delivery of care."

The program, which is voluntary for those primary care physicians who choose to use this service, begins in three hospitals in Daytona and eighteen hospitals in Orlando.

Cogent Healthcare Inc. also has contracts with Aetna/Prudential, FHHS, BCBS of Fl, and United Healthcare in Central Florida. The new agreement with Humana Inc. is expected to double the volume of patients in the area who will be cared for by experienced Cogent physicians and their team.

"Hospitalist" physicians are physicians who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients. By being available around the clock, hospitalists are able to attend to a patient's changing condition as it occurs rather than having care delayed until the primary care physician can arrive from his/her practice. The critical care skills of these hospitalists are important factors in helping today's more critically ill hospital patients get the level of care they need. Thus, hospitalists improve the quality of care patients receive and enhance the efficiency of the care process. By delivering more efficient and timely care, the time the patient spends in the hospital may also be reduced.

About Cogent Healthcare, Inc.

Cogent Healthcare, Inc. (www.cogenthealthcare.com) is a leading provider of services that improve the well being of hospitalized patients while reducing their associated costs through the creation and management of inpatient-based physician networks. Its mission is to improve care and efficiency by reducing variations in care, establishing best practices, identifying and removing barriers to efficient care, and measuring outcomes. To this end, the company provides comprehensive programs in clinical care staffing, communication, and data management that support the hospitalist physician in the delivery of inpatient care.

Cogent Healthcare's programs are currently in 11 major markets throughout the United States. The company has contracts with more than 65 facilities including 155 hospitals with 1,300 referring primary care physicians, covering more than 2,000,000 lives. Cogent clients include most of the nation's largest health plans such as United Healthcare, Aetna, BlueCross/BlueShield, Humana, and Kaiser Permanente, plus leading hospitals and hospital systems such as Intermountain Healthcare, Baptist Health Systems in Florida and Texas and St. Vincent's Medical Center in Santa Fe.

In addition to traditional hospitalist programs, the company has a program with Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest HMO, which has 2.7 million members in Southern California, to provide hospitalists to handle emergency care sought by its members at non-Kaiser hospitals.

In May 2000, Cogent Healthcare also launched the first Internet-based continuing medical educational program for hospitalist physicians. Its CME programs for physicians, nurses and pharmacists can be accessed at the company's website, www.cogenthealthcare.com.

To extend its successful inpatient management model beyond the hospital walls, Cogent is developing a network of resources to enhance management throughout the continuum of care, addressing home care, sub-acute care, disease management and end-of-life issues.