MEDecision Publishes E-book: Medication Therapy Management - A Case for Health Plan Intervention

Online, March 2, 2011 (Newswire.com) - MEDecision, Inc., a leading provider of collaborative health management solutions, today published its latest e-book, "Medication Therapy Management - A Case for Health Plan Intervention," exploring the importance of Medication Therapy Management (MTM) programs to emerging patient-centered medical home and accountable care organization care management models. The publication explains how health plans are ideally positioned to facilitate MTM programs and looks at the technology necessary to make them successful. The complimentary e-book can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/eIBMWG.

The American Pharmacists Association defines MTM as "a distinct service or group of services that optimizes therapeutic outcomes for individual patients." Since medications have a significant impact on the cost and quality of healthcare in the United States - they account for an estimated 1.5 million preventable adverse events each year costing the health insurance industry an estimated $177 billion in additional healthcare programs - MTM is considered a critical component of new patient-centric care models designed to reduce waste and improve outcomes.

In the e-book, MEDecision explains how MTM has the most impact when it is administered by organizations charged with managing population health, such as health plans and accountable care organizations. The e-book also examines how technology that can gather comprehensive data from disparate sources, transform it into actionable information and deliver it to other entities on-demand can optimize overall health outcomes. Finally, the e-book covers the financial implications of MTM and how it is classified in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's Final Rule on Medical Loss Ratios.

"Given the prevalence of medication therapy in modern healthcare, it is essential that we better manage current processes to ensure safety, effectiveness and efficiency," said Eric Demers, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for MEDecision. "The numbers speak for themselves and, with the right technology, health plans can be instrumental in reversing current negative trends. The e-book offers crucial insight on MTM and its importance to the value-based approach that the industry is increasingly adopting."

With more than 20 years of health IT experience, MEDecision is uniquely positioned to empower insurers in their efforts to implement MTM initiatives. By design, the company's products are intended to drive value, improve quality and lower costs. They provide the all-inclusive, member-focused collaborative health management necessary for successful ACOs and patient-centered medical homes and, consequently, MTM programs within them.

For more information about MEDecision, please visit www.MEDecision.com. Follow the company on Twitter at @MEDecision and on Facebook at www.MEDecision.com/Facebook.

About MEDecision

MEDecision offers collaborative health management solutions that provide a way for payers and providers to harness the power of knowledge to enable the best clinical decisions, engage patients and improve health outcomes. Designed around a patient-aware health management philosophy, MEDecision's solutions include Alineo®, a health management platform for delivering outcome-driven case, disease, utilization and behavioral health management; InFrame™, a set of tools to facilitate the health and performance management processes for physicians and accountable care organizations; and Nexalign®, MEDecision's health decision support service that applies analytics to information gathered from multiple sources to foster better business and clinical decisions on a patient's behalf. For more information, visit www.MEDecision.com.