McKesson Raises the Bar With InterQual Criteria and Software Releases

“Healthcare is entering into an entirely new era of collaboration and connectivity,” said A. Jacqueline Mitus, M.D., senior vice president of product strategy and operations for the McKesson Health Solutions business unit. “McKesson has taken the lead in providing health plans, hospitals and other stakeholders with not only the evidence-based medical content upon which alliance depends but also optimal technology to facilitate this new level of communication.”

CareEnhance Review Manager Enterprise 6.0 features two enhancements that improve the utility of the system and support productive payor-provider communications. First, the new InterQual Transparency Solution allows a health plan to give physicians password-protected access to InterQual Criteria through its existing physician portal. This access enables payors and physicians to share information quickly and efficiently. Second, the new Custom Criteria Utility allows users to add regional guidelines, internal policies or other unique scenarios alongside InterQual Criteria so they can all be accessed in one care management workflow.

Other improvements to CareEnhance Review Manager Enterprise are added features to make navigating the system easier and faster.

InterQual 2007 includes multiple enhancements to the Behavioral Health Criteria, including expansion of the Child Psychiatry Criteria to cover 4-5 year olds and extending the Residential Criteria to include community-based and residential settings for adolescent substance abuse treatment. McKesson has also added an additional level of care in the InterQual Acute Pediatrics criteria set: Transitional Care Nursery will help manage cases where low birth weight babies are too healthy for a NICU setting but not healthy enough to go home. Two subsets to the Durable Medical Equipment criteria, hearing aids and ankle-foot devices, have been added in response to a rise in demand for them in the pediatric and commercial populations.

To promote the appropriate and consistent application of InterQual Criteria, McKesson also introduced a new web-based Interrater Reliability Tool. This tool allows managers to automate the interrater reliability assessment process and get instant results. Reviewers just need internet access and a browser to take the IRR tests anytime. They receive the results as soon as they finish the test — complete with an on-the-spot analysis of any wrong answers to help improve their clinical knowledge and skill in the criteria application process. This efficiency makes it easier for managers to schedule and evaluate interrater reliability tests as well as pinpoint training opportunities to optimize application of the criteria.

More than 4,000 health plans, hospitals, academic medical centers, government agencies and care management organizations currently use McKesson’s InterQual products, the industry standard in evidence-based clinical decision support. InterQual content is unmatched in integrity, helping to ensure appropriateness of care and increasing confidence in clinical decision-making. As the most widely used evidence-based clinical criteria, it facilitates alignment between providers and payors in care management decisions and payment.

About McKesson Corporation

McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK), currently ranked 18^th 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.