MDdatacor Extends Contract with Wellmark, Inc.

Wellmark, Inc. does business as Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa. Wellmark and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, insure or pay health benefit claims for more than two million members inIowa andSouth Dakota.

For the past two years, the innovative arrangement between Wellmark and MDdatacor has enabled participating clinicians to enhance their focus on improving health outcomes for diabetic and hypertensive patients, and has now expanded to include asthma, childhood immunizations, and cancer screenings.

MDdatacor has been working with Wellmark since 2006 to support initiatives that promote quality health care and increased efficiency. MDdatacor's proprietary CareInformatix(TM) technology collects and analyzes claims and physicians' clinical data from a variety of sources, and in turn, provides physicians with reports that identify patients whose current treatment does not achieve evidence-based guidelines. MDdatacor is currently the only company able to provide its customers with both claims and comprehensive clinical data, making the data more accurate, timely and, ultimately, valuable.

According to Timothy G. Roche, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of MDdatacor, the willingness of physicians to use the MDdatacor Web-based decision-support tools can be attributed to the fact that the data is derived from their own patient records in the form of transcribed notes, electronic medical records and lab results.

"MDdatacor has been fortunate to work with such an innovative health plan that sees the value of going beyond the medical claims data and utilizing clinical data to provide physicians with actionable information at the point-of-care, which has led to tremendous improvements in patients' health," said Roche.

MDdatacor recently conducted a study of more than 9,000 Wellmark diabetic patients, analyzing both process and outcomes measures as outlined in evidence-based guidelines. The study measured the percentage increase in patients receiving an annual HbA1C, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and blood pressure tests, as well as the improved clinical outcomes as measured by lowered test scores for each of those measures. The company plans to publish a white paper detailing the results of the study in the near future.

MDdatacor facilitates physician-centric disease management, focused on non-compliant patients as measured against evidence-based guidelines. As a result, physicians have the information they need on their entire patient population to proactively manage patient care.

"The expansion of MDdatacor's relationship with Wellmark clearly shows the significance of this unique approach to improving patient outcomes, which has proven to be not only successful but also more cost-effective than traditional disease management methods," said John S. Watts, Jr., MDdatacor executive chairman.

About MDdatacor

Established in 2001 and headquartered inAtlanta, Georgia, MDdatacor enhances healthcare quality through the development of innovative technology solutions. MDdatacor solutions are used to support quality improvement, health information exchange and Patient-Centered Medical Home initiatives. MDdatacor currently serves more than 7,000 physicians representing more than seven million patients.

About Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Wellmark, Inc. (www.wellmark.com) does business as Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield ofIowa. Wellmark and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, including Wellmark ofSouth Dakota, Inc. does business as Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield ofSouth Dakota and Wellmark Health Plan ofIowa, Inc., insure or pay health benefit claims for more than two million members inIowa and South Dakota. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield ofIowa, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield ofSouth Dakota, and Wellmark Health Plan ofIowa, Inc. are independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

    Contact:
    Heather McLarney
    (866) 460-5681
    Heather.mclarney@mddatacor.com

SOURCE MDdatacor, Inc.

Copyright © 2008, PRNewswire
Copyright © 2008, NewsBlaze, Daily News

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