HomeTown Health Selects McKesson to Help Rural Hospitals Thrive in a Time of Reform

SOURCE:  McKesson

NEWTON, Mass — November 5, 2012 — HomeTown Health LLC, a network of rural hospitals and other medical practitioners, has chosen technology from McKesson to support decisions about the optimal use of healthcare resources for providing the best care. By hosting CareEnhance^® Review Manager Enterprise on behalf of its hospitals, HomeTown Health is making it faster and easier for rural hospitals to take advantage of state-of-the-art tools for determining and documenting medical necessity and helping to improve the quality of medical care. To date, 15 facilities have signed up to use the web-based solution, which helps automate the care review process as well as retrieve data and aggregate reporting about the process.

The core mission of HomeTown Health is to help its network thrive in an environment of constant change in reimbursement, operations and technology. The organization takes a multifaceted approach to this mission, supplying accredited continuing education and training programs, legislative representation and access to best-practice solutions for its members. With 56 hospital members in Georgia, HomeTown Health has recently added 10 hospitals in Florida, making it one of the largest and most successful networks of its type in the country.

“So often, rural hospitals know exactly what they need to do to improve healthcare access, affordability and quality, but they simply do not have the resources to do it,” said Lou Semrad, director of clinical services at HomeTown Health. “We first help by performing the extensive due diligence required to find the right partners for our members and negotiate arrangements on the group’s behalf, then we make sure that our vendors continually earn the business through our ongoing evaluation process. McKesson was the right choice for our team and a great choice for our members.”

CareEnhance Review Manager Enterprise helps both healthcare providers and payers introduce greater consistency to the care review process using InterQual^® Criteria, the industry leader in evidence-based clinical decision support content. Its data retrieval and aggregated reporting capabilities are critical tools for rural hospitals during Medicare recovery audit contractor (RAC) audits, where hospitals need to be able to present documentation that justifies that their decisions are in keeping with best practices.

“Not only does CareEnhance Review Manager Enterprise support better care for our patients, but it also helps our member hospitals better determine the appropriate levels of care, which is absolutely imperative for rural hospitals with tight operating margins,” Semrad explained.

“For rural hospitals, the challenges of rapidly adapting to a changing healthcare landscape can be daunting, particularly when technology is involved. At its best, however, technology helps your teams make better care decisions while doing more with less, which is exactly what small hospitals need,” said Matthew Zubiller, vice president of decision management at McKesson Health Solutions. “HomeTown Health makes it possible for its member hospitals to access the same tools as larger institutions, and we’re pleased to support its mission to empower rural hospitals.”

For more information on McKesson Health Solutions, please visit our website, hear from our experts at MHSdialogue (http://mhsdialogue.com/), and follow us on Twitter at @McKesson_MHS (https://twitter.com/McKesson_MHS), or join our LinkedIn group (http://www.linkedin.com/groups/McKesson-Health-Solutions-4509971?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr).

Related McKesson Health Solutions News

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Selects McKesson’s Provider Contracting Solution; http://ow.ly/eZc57
• McKesson Introduces Advanced Claims Pricing Technology; http://ow.ly/eZc6n
• Kern Health Systems Selects McKesson VITAL Care Management to Help Deliver Better Care to Thousands; http://ow.ly/eg4ft

About McKesson Corporation

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit us at www.mckesson.com.

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