Verispan Releases 2007 IHN 100(R): Rating of the 100 Most Highly Integrated Healthcare Networks.

YARDLEY, Pa. -- Verispan announced today the release of the 2007 Verispan IHN 100[R], the 10th edition of its annual assessment of the 100 most highly integrated healthcare networks (IHNs). Verispan's report, regarded as the nation's premier rating system, evaluates IHNs on their performance and degree of integration.

The 2007 Verispan IHN 100[R] rating has a new No. 1 network. St. John's Health System first appeared on the Verispan IHN 100[R] list in 1999 with a 62.99 score, the 62nd position at that time. Since then, St. John's has appeared in every year's rating, showing progress each time; it was rated 34th in 2002, 20th in 2004, and 15th in 2006. Their commitment to the communities it serves and dedication to its business helped it reach No. 1 in 2007.

Intermountain Healthcare, trailing St. John's by only 0.6 points, remained No. 2. Promedica Health System, which was No. 1 in 2006, secured the No. 3 spot, scoring 92.71, 1.27 points behind St. John's.

Although the top score in the 2007 rating is 0.69 points lower than the previous year, the race is considerably tighter this year. The mean score of the top 100 IHNs jumped from 79.20 in 2006 to 81.65 in 2007, and the variance between any two scores among the top 100 slid from 0.235 in 2006 to 0.188 in 2007. The 95th percentile score in 2006 was 86.190, and in 2007 it climbed to 91.395. These shifts demonstrate the increased competition to earn a prominent place on the top 100 IHNs list.

The 2007 edition identifies the top 100 IHNs in the current universe of 570 non-specialty, local and regional networks in the United States that meet critical success factors. The rating is based on Verispan's IHN Rating System[TM], which evaluates each network's ability to operate as a unified organization in each of eight categories: integration, integrated technology, contractual capabilities, outpatient utilization, financial stability, services and access, hospital utilization, and physicians.

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Verispan's annual IHN survey, initiated in 1997, is another primary source for the rating. The survey allows Verispan to use a standard methodology for collecting data and rating IHNs. Traditional primary and secondary research completes the data profiles of non-responders.

The Verispan IHN Benchmark Report allows any IHN, regardless of whether or not it was rated in the Verispan IHN 100[R], to compare its scores in 33 data elements to those of selected competitors as well as to the average scores of all IHNs broken out by the top 10, top 100 and the remaining rated systems. This report includes color charts and subjective commentary for each of the eight rating categories.

For more information, please contact Subhash Seelam at 267-685-4720 or [e-mail].

To see the top 100 networks, visit the IHN information page at www.verispan.com.

About Verispan

Verispan, a healthcare informatics joint venture of Quintiles Transnational Corp. and McKesson Corp., provides a broad array of information products and services to the healthcare industry, including sales targeting and compensation products; market research audits; healthcare profiles; comprehensive managed care offerings; primary market research; data integration, warehousing and mining; data analysis and consulting; direct mail; list services; disease management studies; clinical trial investigator targeting and protocol recruitment evaluation; healthcare outcomes; and cost/benefit analyses, among many others. Verispan is also the nation's leading provider of patient-centric longitudinal data, with dozens of products used by clients spanning the industry.

Headquartered in Yardley, Pa., Verispan employs over 500 dedicated healthcare information professionals. The company's Web site is www.verispan.com.