Health Plans Gain Greater Insight into Business Drivers with McKesson's Latest CRMS(TM) Release
June 05, 2007

NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--McKesson Corporation, the world’s leading healthcare services company, has released version 5.7 of CareEnhance® Resource Management Software (CRMS), the most comprehensive suite of software tools supporting health plans’ data analysis and reporting requirements. Along with enhancing usability, flexibility and reporting ease, CRMS 5.7 can help health plans more readily predict healthcare costs while more effectively addressing the underlying drivers of those costs.

“Our payor clients have told us they want to tell a clearer, more informed story to their business partners — not only to better explain to employers where their healthcare dollars are being spent, but how they might influence that spending,” said Nadine Hays, vice president of strategy and business development for the McKesson Health Solutions business unit. “We help health plans meet that need with CRMS 5.7.”

CRMS is the only set of business intelligence products on the market that allows health plans to embed any of the top case-mix assessment methodologies: Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACGs), Diagnostic Cost Groups (DCGs) and Episode Risk Groups™ (ERGs). CRMS 5.7 includes updates to all of these “risk groupers,” promoting clinical integrity as well as extending the software’s prospective analytical capabilities.

Risk groupers allow health plans to objectively explain variations in healthcare utilization and cost for provider groups, employer groups and physicians’ patient populations. This, in turn, enables health plans to make fair comparisons between these groups, which supports pay-for-performance and care management programs, underwriting and actuarial activities, and marketing and communications to employers.

In addition, CareEnhance® HealthPlan Reporter™, a module of CRMS 5.7, has received certification from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for the seventh year in a row. HealthPlan Reporter is now certified for the 2007 version of HEDIS®. The voluntary software certification program ensures the integrity of commercial software products that produce HEDIS results. HEDIS is a tool used by more than 90 percent of America's health plans to measure performance on important dimensions of care and service.

More than 75 health plans rely on CRMS for their analytical and reporting needs, making it the industry’s most widely used business intelligence software.

About NCQA

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes physicians in key clinical areas. NCQA’s Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. For more information, visit www.ncqa.org.

About McKesson Corporation

McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK), currently ranked 18th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes and improving the quality and safety of patient care. Over the course of its 174-year history, McKesson has grown to provide pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. For more information, visit us at www.mckesson.com.

Episode Risk Groups is a trademark of Symmetry, Inc. HEDIS® is a registered trademark of NCQA.