EMERYVILLE, Calif., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- RelayHealth Corporation, the nation's premier provider of health plan-reimbursed online doctor-patient communication services, today announced that Medical Network One will license the RelayHealth service to provide e-prescribing and online disease management programs for its nearly 50,000-member patient population.
Medical Network One is an independent physician organization of 276 primary care physicians delivering care throughout the state of Michigan and Lucas County, Ohio.
"Our decision to go with RelayHealth was an obvious one. Of the many online health care communication services we reviewed, they are, quite simply, the best," said Al Juocys, DO, medical director of Medical Network One. "The service is straightforward, secure, and user-friendly for both providers and patients. We anticipate increased service levels; instant and accurate documentation of all communications, including telephone calls; and reliable and rigorous assessment of our pharmacy and chronic disease programs."
With RelayHealth's eScript(R) electronic prescription service, Medical Network One providers will be able to write prescriptions and authorize refills for established patients online. Options for medication strength and form are presented to the prescribing physician as part of the service. Resulting prescriptions are securely transmitted to virtually any pharmacy in the U.S., automatically screened for drug interactions, and reviewed for formulary compliance prior to submission.
RelayHealth's eScript helps promote patient safety through its link to RxHub, which enables prescribers using the service to view the patient's prior medication history in real-time, flagging potential adverse interactions with on-screen alerts. It also delivers formulary information at the point of prescribing, helping manage patient's healthcare cost by presenting options associated with the lowest patient co-payment.
Medical Network One's use of RelayHealth for electronic prescribing aligns it with the goals of the Southeast Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative (SEMI), a major quality initiative driven by the nation's leading auto makers.
Medical Network One will also utilize RelayHealth to electronically transmit preventive care reminders to patients with chronic diseases -- particularly those with diabetes, asthma, and chronic back pain. RelayHealth enables doctors and their staff to send out customizable outbound preventive reminders with clinically reviewed, pre-written statements ("Smoking can contribute to a variety of cardiovascular problems and lead to diabetic complications ... "), or attach more detailed preventive care articles to outgoing RelayHealth messages.
"Our current offline disease management process is cumbersome and time consuming, and our library of material is limited," explains Dr. Juocys. "RelayHealth will enable us to dramatically increase our available preventive care content, and efficiently distribute it. What's more, we've a keen interest in medical literacy, and found RelayHealth's preventive care content to be candid, clear, and easy for patients to consume."
In addition to the e-prescribing and preventive care offerings slated for immediate deployment, RelayHealth's online doctor-patient communication services will be made available to patients in coming months.
"We've made an extensive effort to understand and address the many pressures facing healthcare organizations today," said Giovanni Colella, MD, president and chief executive officer of RelayHealth. "Medical Network One quickly grasped the key values our service offers providers: multiplied efficiencies, improved compliance with healthcare quality programs, and enhanced communication with patients. We look forward to helping Medical Network One reap these important benefits."
About Medical Network One
Founded in 1981, Medical Network One is an independent physician organization of nearly 300 clinicians providing quality care to more than 50,000 patients throughout the state of Michigan and Lucas County, Ohio. Corporate headquarters are located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Utilizing the latest technologies, Medical Network One's aim is to ensure the most efficient delivery of administrative services in the managed care environment for the communities it serves. For information, visit www.mednetone.com.
About RelayHealth Corporation
RelayHealth is the premier provider of payor-reimbursed secure online healthcare communication services linking patients, healthcare professionals, health plans, and pharmacies. A secure, clinically structured productivity platform for the medical office, the RelayHealth service is an emerging online communication standard, interfacing with both commercial and custom-built electronic medical record systems through the company's Interoperability Toolkit. Research studies show RelayHealth reduces phone traffic and increases physician productivity through modular features like the webVisit(R) clinical consultation and eScript(R) electronic prescribing -- one reason leading health plans nationwide increasingly reimburse providers who use the RelayHealth service. For healthcare consumers, RelayHealth improves convenience, access and communication with their own doctors. For information, visit www.relayhealth.com.
RelayHealth CorporationCONTACT: Briana Pompei of RelayHealth, +1-510-428-7853, orbriana.pompei@relayhealth.com; or Ewa Matuszewski of Medical Network One,+1-248-475-4702, or ematuszewski@mednetone.net
