MEDecision: A New Day for Accountable Care at HIMSS 2012

WAYNE, PA--(Marketwire - Feb 13, 2012) - MEDecision, Inc., the leading provider in collaborative health management solutions, will highlight solutions designed to help healthcare organizations improve health outcomes and implement sustainable accountable care and medical home models at the 2012 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference, to be held in Las Vegas on February 21-23. As physicians, hospitals and health plans strive to 'connect the dots' through all the factors required for industry transformation, one thing is clear: to improve health outcomes, all stakeholders must focus on empowering consumers and delivering value-based, member-centric care. Solutions that help improve the health of targeted populations, support chronic-condition management and deliver the connectivity needed to drive enhanced care team collaboration are critical. At HIMSS, MEDecision will showcase solutions to support these needs and will highlight the stories of leading healthcare organizations who have partnered with MEDecision to build and deploy platforms for change.

Under the conference theme, "A New Day for Accountable Care," MEDecision will feature presentations from leaders at the forefront of health reform implementation -- Automated Benefit Services, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (a division of Health Care Service Corporation), Central Alabama Health Information Exchange and Health Care Service Corporation -- who will each share powerful lessons learned through their implementation of some of the most forward-looking, consumer-driven healthcare initiatives in the US.

Conference attendees are also invited to 'Meet Joe Brown' through in-booth demonstrations of how MEDecision's integrated solutions deliver on the promise of value-based care: a new day of engaged consumers, highly effective physician-payer collaboration and improvements in the quality and cost of care. In addition, MEDecision will host booth performances by 'The New Day Dance Company.' This powerful trio, led by distinguished dancer and choreographer Kimmie Gee, will perform riveting routines representing the possibilities and potential of healthcare transformation.

"A new day in healthcare is here. While the policy discussion in Washington is focused on the need for value-based care reform, MEDecision, with our customers, is already making it happen across the country," said Deborah Gage, president and CEO of MEDecision. "We know that choosing the right partners to help drive the kind of change needed to support the highest levels of business and practice transformation is not easy, so we will use our presence at HIMSS to shine a light on the experience and solutions MEDecision brings to physicians, hospitals and health plans looking to build a consumer-driven, sustainable, high-quality health care system."

Experience Speaks

At HIMSS, MEDecision will help to lift the fog of accountable care through of the voice of experience -- industry leaders who have partnered with MEDecision to optimize health outcomes, better manage population health, and lower healthcare related costs:

• Automated Benefit Services, Inc.
  Representing one of the largest third party administrators (TPA) in the country, Louis Lapiana, vice president, ACO Administration and Matt Gorczyca, technology strategist of Automated Benefit Services (ABS), will examine the business case for the Company's expansion to support ACO administration. ABS has partnered with MEDecision as its platform to drive enhanced care coordination, reduce costs and meet quality targets for four Michigan-based ACOs. Get a glimpse of how centralized healthcare utilization management, case management and disease management -- supported by an industry-leading care management, analytics and connectivity solutions -- will serve as the foundation for accountable care for approximately 200,000 Michigan consumers.

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX)
  Joe Taylor, vice president, Enterprise Health Care Management, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) and Rick Haddock, senior director of Network Performance Management, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, a division of HCSC, will be center stage to discuss how, by implementing a population management system with the MEDecision accountable care solution set as its framework, BCBSTX is striving to help improve the overall health of enrollees in its health benefit plans. BCBSTX is applying the analytics included in the MEDecision solution to data from across the healthcare enterprise (BCBS, physicians, hospitals, IDNs) to encourage contracted physicians to practice preventative medicine, provide a full range of treatment options and uncover the likelihood for serious complications BEFORE they become complications.

• Central Alabama Health Information Exchange (CAHIE)
  CAHIE CEO, Allen Scales, will address how MEDecision worked with seven Alabama hospitals (Children's of Alabama, Cullman Regional Medical Center, Medical West, Montgomery Baptist East, Montgomery Baptist South, Prattville Baptist, and UAB Hospital), funded by a UAB-led grant, to design and deliver a federated, XDS-based exchange for medical images and clinical information to improve collaboration across institutions for image-intensive cases (e.g. trauma, cancer, pediatrics.). The exchange, called the Central Alabama Health Image Exchange, is the first of its kind in the United States. Scales will speak to lessons learned from the implementation and the promise this solution has for improving consumer care, reducing unnecessary duplicate imaging, radiation exposure, and driving down costs.

Meet Joe Brown

MEDecision will feature in-booth demonstrations of its collaborative health management solutions to illustrate the new day as experienced by Joe Brown -- the face of accountable care. Conference attendees will see how technologies like population management, care management, mobile device interoperability, and health information exchange can be integrated to deliver the foundation for change, and the differentiation needed to empower and serve consumers like Joe Brown.

The New Day Dance Company

How would you bring the story of the new day of accountable care to life for HIMSS conference attendees? If you're a company like MEDecision -- in a constant state of discovery, inventiveness and thinking beyond the norm -- you consider the transformative power of dance. HIMSS attendees will not want to miss performances by The New Day Dance Company in MEDecision Booth #1623. Led by Kimmie Gee, a world-class dancer and choreographer who has performed alongside pop culture's biggest names, including Beyonce and Usher, The New Day Dance Company will bring their passion for dance to HIMMS in performances that will speak to the possibilities and potential of healthcare transformation.

For more information on MEDecision at HIMSS, or to learn about its full range of collaborative health management solutions and technologies, please visit http://www.MEDecision.com.

About MEDecision

MEDecision's contribution to the healthcare industry is a powerful platform that delivers meaningful data to inform the most important healthcare transaction: patient care. We start with a philosophy that patients, providers and payers are all driving towards better health outcomes and that this common interest dictates the need for collaborative working environments. Then, we apply 23 years of experience, $85+ million in research and development and the strongest clinical knowledge to deliver the MEDecision collaborative health management platform, which includes Nexalign®, a health decision support service that applies analytics to information gathered from multiple sources to foster better business and clinical decisions on a patient's behalf, Alineo®, a health management platform for delivering outcome-driven case, disease, utilization and behavioral health management, and InFrame™, a set of tools to facilitate the health and performance management processes for physicians and accountable care organizations.

For more information, visit www.MEDecision.com.

MEDecision is a trademark of MEDecision, Inc. The MEDecision logo and product names are also trademarks or registered trademarks of MEDecision, Inc. Other product and brand names are trademarks of their respective owners.