OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2012. McKesson announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MedVentive, a leading provider of population and risk management tools that drive transparency in healthcare cost and quality, reported the press-centre of McKesson.

MedVentive’s solutions will augment McKesson’s capabilities and experience to support providers as they become clinically integrated, engage physicians and patients to reduce costs, and transition to risk-bearing models such as accountable care. These areas are core to Better Health 2020™, McKesson Technology Solutions’ strategy to support customers’ use of information technology for better business, better care and better connectivity.

Based in Waltham, Mass., MedVentive was founded in 2005 by Jonathan Niloff, MD, formerly an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. MedVentive serves health systems, multispecialty clinics and payers nationwide, including large West Coast risk-based providers, some of the largest U.S. hospital systems, major academic medical centers and provider-based payers. This year Gartner named MedVentive as one of its Cool Vendors in Healthcare Providers, which recognizes companies for providing innovative and potentially transformative solutions that can benefit health system providers.

MedVentive’s SaaS solutions, MedVentive® Risk Manager and MedVentive® Population Manager, will be strong additions to the McKesson Enterprise Intelligence™ suite of solutions to help healthcare organizations understand and manage the quality, cost and efficiency of providing patient care across settings, conditions and/or other providers. For example, Self Regional Health System in Greenwood, S.C., and Centra Health in Lynchburg, Va., both demonstration sites for McKesson’s accountable care offering, will use McKesson’s and MedVentive’s integrated operational performance, population and network analytics solutions. These solutions are designed to help Self Regional and Centra Health manage quality and cost as they transition to an accountable care service delivery model and assume financial risk for their employee populations.

“More healthcare providers are beginning to assume risk as we move to value-based reimbursement,” said Pat Blake, executive vice president and group president of McKesson Technology Solutions. “Whether it’s for their employee population, a Medicare shared savings plan, or a defined disease state group, providers must understand the risk they are assuming. What providers really need – and McKesson’s solutions will help offer – is a true picture of the total cost of delivered care based on clinical documentation and claims data across all care settings.”

The McKesson and MedVentive solutions also are designed to enable providers to proactively manage the clinical health of at-risk patient populations by identifying gaps in patient care and delivering actionable information to the physician and care team.

“The industry has long been interested in combining insights derived from claims, clinical and population data to manage risk. With the rise of ACOs and patient centered medical homes, this need extends to any organization that has a vested interest in performance-based care delivery models,” Blake added.

“Managing risk and outcomes for patient populations will remain a key focus for providers and payers alike,” said MedVentive’s Dr. Niloff. “Together MedVentive and McKesson will offer the expertise and tools to help improve the quality of care, create financial transparency, and support care collaboration across the continuum.”

Healthcare reform continues to shine a spotlight on accountability for care quality, cost and risk management. To deliver healthcare in 2020 and beyond, organizations will need to optimize clinical, financial and operational performance; coordinate care across settings and stakeholders; navigate new payment models; and manage technology assets to provide a solid foundation for growth beyond the four walls of the health system. These critical success factors are the tenets of McKesson Technology Solutions’ Better Health 2020 strategy.

“Because of our ability to draw on solutions and expertise across various markets, McKesson is well-positioned to lead the industry in coordinating care between various stakeholders,” Blake said. “Our goal with Better Health 2020 is to guide customers through their current crossroads – meaningful use, ICD-10 and others – and equip them for success as they deal with cost reduction, begin to coordinate care, collaborate with payers and manage complex payment models.”