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McKesson Brings Together Senior Leaders from Health Plans and Labs for Advanced Diagnostics SummitsJuly 13, 2010 |
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Series of Events to Promote Dialogue for Improving the Efficient Delivery of Healthcare McKesson recently held its first in a series of Advanced Diagnostics Summits for health insurance plans and clinical laboratories to share ideas on how to ensure the most appropriate use of new advanced diagnostics. The event took place in May at Harvard Medical School in Boston, bringing together senior executives from Massachusetts-market organizations to discuss how to optimize individual patients’ preventive and therapeutic care while reducing overall healthcare costs. McKesson will sponsor future summits in California, New York, Pennsylvania and other major healthcare markets. Advanced diagnostics such as molecular and genetic testing offer great promise for improved care. But health plans and labs alike are challenged with ensuring appropriate utilization and reimbursement without clear answers to questions such as: Which tests should be covered? How should they be coded? How can physicians access the information they need for appropriate ordering? With a new molecular test being introduced every 3-5 days and the market for these tests growing at over 20% annually, issues around test use, coding, reimbursements and authorization are compounding. And, because lab tests affect 70% of healthcare decisions, the potential impact of advanced diagnostics on the total cost of care is significant. “Health plans and labs need a fresh approach to ensure the growth of responsible testing. Our first Advanced Diagnostics Summit yielded valuable, actionable insights on how local health plans and labs can collaborate to address molecular and genetic testing challenges,” said Matthew Zubiller, vice president, Advanced Diagnostics Management, McKesson Health Solutions. “The participants engaged in a lively interchange about the issues they face ? including the need for a transparent process to support the clinical utility of these tests ? and their roles in solving them.” Summit participants gained a deeper understanding of each others’ environments while agreeing the current situation is not sustainable. Areas of consensus included a call for coding standards similar to NDC and NCPDP for pharmacy, access to transparent coverage information for clinicians and clinical labs, and standardized test catalogues across constituents. The Summit featured Scott Weiss, MD, scientific director of Partners HealthCare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine and director of the Center for Genomic Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, discussing cost-effective personalized medicine. Lee Steingisser, MD, medical director of BCBS Massachusetts, presented a case study on the challenges his organization is experiencing managing molecular diagnostics. Attendees also participated in roundtable discussions including “How can payors better identify the actual test performed?” and “How can labs better predict reimbursement before the test is performed?” The McKesson Advanced Diagnostics Management solution suite enables optimal, timely molecular and genetic test coverage and ordering decisions across health plans, clinical labs and healthcare providers at the point of care. For health plans, the suite combines real-time decision support technology with evidence-based content and analytics services that drives effective use of molecular diagnostics and helps manage the total cost of care. The suite also enables clinical labs to get paid for the tests they perform, manage their reference lab networks and meet increasingly stringent payor requirements. About McKesson McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th 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 177-year history, McKesson has grown by providing 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 http://www.mckesson.com .
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