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Disease Management Purchasing Consortium Certifies Event Rate Reduction for HIP Health Plan of New York, an EmblemHealth Company

BOWIE, Md. & ANNAPOLIS, Md. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - MedAssurant, Inc., a leading provider of data-driven healthcare solutions, announced today that the Disease Management Purchasing Consortium (DMPC) has certified the event rate outcomes for HIP Health Plan of New York (HIP) Medicare Advantage patients. The results show a double-digit event rate reduction which was achieved through a program powered by MedAssurant's CCS Advantage disease management solution.

In 2007 MedAssurant teamed with HIP to develop a bold new approach to disease management. The initiative was designed around a highly data-driven appreciation of the individual patient in combination with a hybrid of targeted, patient-specific communications together with high-touch, in-market patient interaction. Advanced data analytics and a broad technological infrastructure empowered a highly customized approach to each patient's assessment, communication, and care plan design. Being able to identify, stratify, and respond to the uniqueness of each patient's disease and life situation enabled rapid, meaningful, and measurable impacts in engagement, clinical outcome, compliance, utilization, and overall costs.

"Being able to identify and report on the impact of distinct disease management program interventions is critical to industry-wide evaluations, but the methodology of performing such evaluations is also quite important," notes Al Lewis, President of the DMPC. "MedAssurant has shown its commitment to use industry best-practice methods of impact measurement, and to make its methodologies transparent to its customers and the public, by turning to the DMPC to certify the impact on event rates of its program conducted for HIP. We are pleased that MedAssurant has committed to industry standards of calculation in the certification of their impact. In our experience, MedAssurant's data-driven approach to a patient-specific disease management program is unique, and I must say that the HIP results are by far the most impressive in the tri-state area and among the most impressive in the country."

DMPC has certified the event rate reduction achieved by HIP over a number of time intervals during which it used the MedAssurant CCS Advantage offering. Using DMPC's methodology standards, a significant reduction in disease-specific inpatient events was seen within the Medicare patient population eligible for the program:

• For heart failure (CHF) and diabetes (DM) patients, a 15.3% decline in inpatient events was seen in the first twelve months following implementation of the CCS Advantage disease management program (over the preceding twelve-month period); and
• For coronary artery disease (CAD) patients (a program introduced January 1^st, 2008), a 20.9% decline in inpatient events was seen in the first three quarters of 2008 (over the same period in 2007).
• Similarly positive result patterns were noted in the examination of full-year (i.e., 12 month) periods and partial (i.e., nine month) year-over-year periods in all diseases managed with positive "time dose dependence" trends suggesting continued expansion of improvement in the setting of longer program engagement and involvement.

"EmblemHealth supports its practitioners in the care and wellbeing of its members in a number of ways and we always seek programs that embrace measurement and a commitment to external validation of methods," said Dr. William Gillespie, SVP and Chief Medical Officer of EmblemHealth. "We are firmly committed to continuously improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of care delivered to our Medicare beneficiaries and we are pleased with the results of our working together with MedAssurant."

"CCS Advantage is a unique solution to the problems of care management with respect to quality, outcomes, and costs" notes Cary Sennett, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of MedAssurant. "CCS Advantage combines MedAssurant's advanced analytics - which provide uniquely granular and detailed insights into the facts of each patient's case - with MedAssurant's broad outreach, touch, and response infrastructure. Combining this patient-specific, personalized approach with an ability to cover the patient's needs in print, by telephone, and in-market makes a material difference. The results show in patients' comments, outcomes, and cost savings."

About DMPC

The Disease Management Purchasing Consortium Int'l, Inc. (DMPC) provides strategy and procurement services to support the disease management and wellness efforts of more than a hundred health plans, employers and states. The DMPC is led by Al Lewis, named the most influential person in the disease management field by Managed Healthcare Executive. DMPC offers Certifications in Savings Measurement Validity, Small Group Outcomes Measurement, and Critical Outcomes Report Analysis. Programs and services are available at www.dismgmt.com. The methodology used to conduct its evaluations is fully transparent and available at no cost to any health plan or employer which requests it.

About EmblemHealth

EmblemHealth, Inc., through its companies including Group Health Incorporated (GHI) and HIP Health Plan of New York (HIP), serves 3.4 million people and provides affordable, quality health care coverage through a range of attractive options. Members have a choice of networks, including access to over 92,000 quality doctors and other health care professionals and most of the leading hospitals across the tristate region. For more information, visit www.emblemhealth.com.

About CCS Advantage

MedAssurant's CCS Advantage delivers a uniquely data-driven, patient-specific solution that enables national and regional health plans and employers to deliver an unparalleled, comprehensive disease management capability with superior benefits to quality of care, clinical outcomes, results transparency, and financial performance. Unlike other solutions, MedAssurant's CCS Advantage delivers a unique, "high touch" hybrid combination of electronic, print, call-center, and clinical in-market based resources to achieve optimal communication, intervention, and coordination of care for each patient - at patient-specific levels of stratification, prioritization, and need. With a strong concurrent industry prowess in healthcare data analytics and accuracy improvement, HEDIS quality outcomes, and managed care risk adjustment, the addressing of multiple needs which are synergistically beneficial to health plans and employers provided added advantages for clients of CCS Advantage . Ultimately, the task-driven focus delivered in a highly granular fashion achieves unparalleled results with strong clinical outcome improvement and materially high ROIs achieved within six months of member engagement.

For more information about MedAssurant's disease management and chronic care solutions, visit: http://www.medassurant.com/disease-management.aspx.

About MedAssurant, Inc.

MedAssurant, Inc. is a leading healthcare solutions provider focused on the importance of healthcare data and its ability to drive dramatic, objective improvements in clinical and quality outcomes, care management, and financial performance throughout the healthcare community. Proprietary healthcare datasets, aggregation, and analysis capabilities, combined with a national infrastructure of leading-edge technology, clinical prowess, and deep human resources empowers MedAssurant's advanced generation of healthcare assessment and improvement through highly informed solutions. In partnership with many members of the healthcare community, MedAssurant provides local, regional, and nationwide health insurance plans, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, regulatory bodies, government organizations, physician organizations, and their many coveted patients with powerful turnkey solutions to address matters of clinical outcomes analysis, quality of care, cost improvement, risk adjustment, disease management, utilization, and healthcare data verification. Driven by a mission to improve today's healthcare landscape, the employees of MedAssurant proudly apply care, ingenuity, and dedication to delivering a new approach to healthcare - one driven by data and insight - one resulting in meaningful action.

Merritt Group on behalf of MedAssurant, Inc.
Melissa Chadwick, 703-390-1539
chadwick@merrittgrp.com
or
MedAssurant, Inc.
Kimberly Putnam, 301-809-4000
Fax: 301-809-4040
kputnam@medassurant.com
www.medassurant.com