ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Medstat, a healthcare information business of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC), announced today that it has purchased two strategically important healthcare payer product lines, CHAMP(TM) and AUTO-AUDIT(R), from Solucient, LLC. The products help healthcare payers -- employers, health plans and government agencies -- leverage healthcare data to reduce costs and address the quality of care. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“Combining Medstat and Solucient capabilities for payers further strengthens Thomson solutions for these important customers in healthcare,” said Robert Cullen, president and CEO of Thomson Scientific & Healthcare. “Medstat is an important part of the Thomson healthcare business, and this investment strengthens our position in a key market.”
“These new capabilities, when combined with Advantage Suite and other Medstat solutions, will increase the value we deliver to all of our customers,” said Larry Hagerty, president and CEO of Thomson Medstat. “For example, we now have a larger network of payer customers and larger health claims databases that will improve our benchmarking, comparative analyses and research capabilities. This, in turn, will directly and positively support the work we do with pharmaceutical companies and hospitals.”
CHAMP(TM) and Medstat Advantage Suite are software applications linked to data warehouses that enable healthcare payers to identify factors driving healthcare cost increases, track and forecast healthcare expenditures, monitor medical management initiatives, evaluate the performance of insurance carriers and assess the impact of proposed changes in health benefit plans. These data warehouses are integrated databases which contain medical, disability and pharmaceutical claims; eligibility and absenteeism information, normative benchmarks and related information. AUTO-AUDIT(R) and complementary Medstat solutions review large volumes of health claims to help payers detect discrepancies and avoid overpayments.
Medstat was founded in 1981 and pioneered the integration, mining and analysis of healthcare claims and other information to unearth insights that help employers, health plans, hospitals and other organizations manage healthcare costs and quality. Medstat is a leader in the employer sector market, counting among its customers four of the Fortune Five and nearly 50 of the Fortune 500 as well as mid-sized employers, health plans, state and federal agencies, hospitals and health systems, pharmaceutical companies and research organizations.
Medstat is establishing an office in the Chicago area as part of the expansion. Medstat is headquartered in Ann Arbor and also has operations in Washington, D.C., Nashville, Atlanta, Boston, Sacramento and Santa Barbara.
About The Thomson Corporation and Medstat
The Thomson Corporation (http://www.thomson.com/ ), with 2004 revenues from continuing operations of $8.10 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of health care, scientific research and development, law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate training and assessment. The Corporation’s common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). Thomson Healthcare information brands (http://www.thomson.com/healthcare ) include Medstat, PDR(R), Micromedex, American Health Consultants, Center for Clinical Research Practice, CenterWatch, Gardiner Caldwell, New England Institutional Review Board, Physicians World and Scientific Connexions. As part of Thomson Scientific & Healthcare, Medstat (http://www.medstat.com/ ) provides market intelligence and benchmark databases, decision support solutions, and research services for managing the cost and quality of healthcare. Medstat applies these capabilities to improve policy and management decision making for employers, government agencies, health plans, hospitals and provider networks, and pharmaceutical companies.
About Solucient, LLC
Solucient(R) is an information products company serving the healthcare industry. It is the market leader in providing tools and vital insights that healthcare managers use to improve the performance of their organizations. By integrating, standardizing and enhancing healthcare information, Solucient provides comparative measurements of cost, quality and market performance. Solucient’s expertise and proven solutions enable providers, payers and pharmaceutical companies to drive business growth, manage costs and deliver high quality care. For more information, visit http://www.solucient.com/ .
Medstat
CONTACT: David Wilkins of Medstat, +1-734-913-3397,david.wilkins@thomson.com ; or Chris Clemmensen of Solucient, +1-847-424-4219,cclemmensen@solucient.com