NEW YORK, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Humana Inc. , one of the nation's largest health benefits companies, today launched its groundbreaking Innovation Center at FORTUNE magazine's first-ever Innovation Forum. The launch, sponsored in conjunction with the Wharton School's Center for Health Management and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, featured a demonstration of computer-based, patent-pending processes that reduce health benefit costs for businesses while improving the quality of life for individuals with chronic health conditions.
FORTUNE's Innovation Forum features sessions with legendary investor Warren Buffett, Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt and other dynamic visionaries on the role of innovation in business success -- how it can be created, nurtured and cultivated within disparate enterprises. As a partner with FORTUNE, Humana's "Innovation in Health Care" center at the Forum gives speakers and attendees the opportunity to interact with the company's proprietary software and to meet company leaders.
Michael B. McCallister, Humana's president and chief executive officer, was a featured speaker on a Forum panel this morning examining the theme of "Leading Innovation in Traditional Businesses."
"FORTUNE's Innovation Forum is the ideal venue for introducing a new, holistic approach to health benefits with the consumer at the center," said Jack Lord, M.D., the company's chief innovation officer and head of the Innovation Center. "We have brought together in the Innovation Center experts from fields as varied as space aeronautics and spy-catching to develop ways that identify and ameliorate disease states with unprecedented accuracy, leading to fewer critical-care episodes for people with chronic conditions and measurable cost savings for the companies that employ them."
The "Innovation in Health Care" center at the Forum is jointly sponsored by the Wharton School's Center for Health Management and Economics, which has partnered with Humana on a variety of initiatives since 2002. Dr. Lawton Robert Burns, director of the Wharton Center and professor of health care systems and management, is a Forum attendee.
"We have just completed a two-year study of successful innovation in a segment of the health care industry that is resistant to change and not known for innovation -- payers and providers," said Dr. Burns. "By comparing Humana's initiatives with those of a few other vanguard firms, we have distilled the ingredients for innovation long-awaited in this industry. The Humana-Wharton Center partnership, which has allowed Wharton faculty and students unique access to proprietary corporate data and extended access to senior executives, illustrates how the Wharton Center can produce findings of direct interest to industry. The Wharton Center for Health Management and Economics is ready to work with Humana as it develops strategic partnerships with companies around the world."
As part of the continuing expansion of its Innovation Center initiatives, Humana and the University of Miami in Miami, Fla., recently signed a memorandum of understanding by which the two groups will collaborate in clinical initiatives. Details of that collaboration are still to be finalized.
"A global crisis in health care demands innovative solutions that will deliver better health at lower cost," said Laurence Gardner, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine and vice dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Miami. "We are eager to see where Humana's innovations in prediction and consumer decision support, linked to collaborative innovations in care delivery, will take us."
Earlier this year, Humana's Innovation Center filed applications for five patents in pharmacy and health metrics -- evidence of Humana's continued leadership in the health benefits industry. All five of the patent applications are for Humana's use of innovative information technology applications to engage consumers in choosing and using their health benefits with confidence. The pending patents represent Humana's growing ability to use predictive modeling to help anticipate future costs and clinical events.
About Humana
Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, is one of the nation's largest publicly traded health benefits companies, with approximately 7 million medical members located primarily in 15 states and Puerto Rico. Humana offers a diversified portfolio of health insurance products and related services -- through traditional and consumer-choice plans -- to employer groups, government-sponsored plans, and individuals.
Over its 43-year history, Humana has consistently seized opportunities to meet changing customer needs. Today, the company is a leader in consumer engagement, providing guidance that leads to lower costs and a better health plan experience throughout its diversified customer portfolio.
More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company's web site at http://www.humana.com/ , including copies of:
- Annual report to stockholders; - Securities and Exchange Commission filings; - Most recent investor conference presentation; - Quarterly earnings press releases (including detailed description of unusual items, where applicable); - Audio archive of most recent earnings release conference call; - Calendar of events (includes upcoming earnings conference call dates, times, and access number, as well as planned interaction with institutional investors); - Corporate Governance Information. About the Wharton Center for Health Management and Economics
The Wharton Center for Health Management and Economics, < http://hcmg.wharton.upenn.edu/chme/ >, seeks strategic partnerships with health care companies and offers corporate members access to applied research, customized executive education programs, and assistance with recruiting within the Wharton Health Care MBA program. The Center's core mission is to stimulate important applied and theoretical research in the areas of health management and economics.
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, < http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/ >, is recognized around the world for its academic strengths across every major discipline and at every level of business education. Founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school in the United States, Wharton has approximately 4,600 undergraduate, MBA, and doctoral students, more than 8,000 participants in its executive education programs annually, and an alumni network of more than 80,000 worldwide.
About FORTUNE
FORTUNE, the leading biweekly business magazine, is known for its unrivaled access to industry leaders and decision-makers throughout the world. FORTUNE's annual ranking of the 500 largest corporations, the FORTUNE 500, is the ultimate benchmark of business success. Founded in 1930, FORTUNE has grown to a worldwide circulation of more than 1 million and a worldwide readership of nearly 5 million. The website, fortune.com, which averages 10 million page views per month, keeps visitors ahead of the business curve by providing up-to-the-minute information and analysis of the people and trends driving business innovation. The FORTUNE Conference Division extends the magazine's editorial mission into live settings, hosting a wide range of annual conferences for top-level executives, including the FORTUNE Global Forum, the Most Powerful Women Summit, and Brainstorm. The FORTUNE Group at Time Inc., a division of Time Warner, is comprised of FORTUNE, FSB: FORTUNE Small Business and Business 2.0 and is part of Time Inc.
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