Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Manasquan, N.J., USA, May 23, 2006 – A community center offers exercise classes for children with disabilities. A non-profit organization produces disease-specific pamphlets in Spanish. A self-help group supports individuals with a shared condition. Alone, these community initiatives perform a valuable service. Paired with a disease management (DM) initiative, they can enrich the level of care, reduce duplication of effort and pare costs. Unfortunately, most health plans and providers don’t tap these local resources when designing their DM programs.

Maximizing the Results of Your Disease Management Programs through Community-Based Resources, a June 21, 2006 audio conference sponsored by the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN), will examine the benefits of partnering with community resources to augment DM offerings. For more information, please visit the HIN bookstore.

“There is a world of community-based clubs and associations that can provide additional opportunities to round out patient care, reduce unnecessary expenditures and improve outcomes,” says Melanie Matthews, HIN executive vice president and chief operating officer. Having reported on numerous DM initiatives in recent years, Matthews notes that community partnerships are frequently a hallmark of the most successful DM programs.

During the 90-minute live interactive audio conference, Michelle Brooks, RN, MSN, regional health plan administrator with University Health Systems, and Danielle Butin, manager of health promotion at Oxford Health Plans, will outline how to first choose a community partner and then structure these partnerships and evaluate the impact they can have on the effectiveness of a DM program.

Using real-life examples and benefits from community partnerships already in place, these speakers will also provide details on:

• Identifying potential partnering organizations;
• Structuring the partnership to maximum benefit;
• Overcoming the challenges associated with community partnerships;
• Maximizing the results of disease management programs through community resources; and
• Considering the needs of Medicare and Medicaid populations.

The community partnership process to be mapped out at the June 21, 2006 audio conference will benefit CEOs, medical directors, disease management directors, managers and coordinators, health plan executives, care management nurses, business development and strategic planning directors. The 90-minute audio conference format builds in 30 minutes dedicated to responding to participants' questions.

For those who miss the live conference, an on-demand rebroadcast can be accessed beginning June 23, 2006, and a CD-ROM recording with printed transcript will be available in mid-July. To register and obtain details on audio conference formats, please visit the HIN bookstore.

About the Healthcare Intelligence Network---HIN is the premier advisory service for executives seeking high-quality strategic information on the business of healthcare. For more information, contact the Healthcare Intelligence Network, PO Box 1442, Wall Township, NJ 07719-1442, (888) 446-3530, fax (732) 292-3073, e-mail info@hin.com, or visit http://www.hin.com.

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Contact: Patricia Donovan

Voice: (888) HIN-3530
Fax: (732) 292-3073
Web site: www.hin.com
pdonovan@hin.com