TZIX Trizetto Grp. (MM)

The TriZetto Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TZIX) last week held its 2008 Network & Care Management Executive Summit, which drew network and care management executives from health plans representing more than 100 million insured Americans. Now in its fifth year, this summit is an intimate gathering of network and care management executives to collaborate, discuss trends and share best practices while hearing from thought leaders in several key areas of payer operations. Featured speakers and presentation topics at the March 3-4 summit in New Orleans included: Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., former administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration: �The Future of Healthcare: Leading Change to Deliver Value.� Tom Main, managing partner and founder, ChapterHouse: �Health Value Solution � Cost and Quality of Care.� Dick Salmon, M.D., Ph.D., national medical director at CIGNA: �The Health Plan Perspective: Integrating Network Management and Care Management Operations.� Jeff Margolis, chairman and chief executive officer, The TriZetto Group: �Integrated Healthcare Management: The Final Mile in Healthcare.� The theme of the summit was �Integrated Healthcare Management: Strategies for the Future.� Integrated Healthcare Management, or IHM, is the systematic application of processes and shared information to optimize the coordination of benefits and care for the healthcare consumer. �Payers have the power and the responsibility to lead the way in systematically coordinating benefits and care for healthcare consumers,� said Margolis in remarks to attendees at the summit. �Health plans have a rich repository of transactional and clinical information to take the lead in designing and managing processes across the major healthcare constituents consisting of providers, brokers, employers and consumers.� The summit focused on next-generation ideas for physician-consumer engagement, changes to physician reimbursement as a result of new types of information-based transactions and emerging constructs such as Advanced Medical Home. The summit also considered the convergence of network and care management for improved cost, clinical outcomes and member health and productivity. In his presentation, ChapterHouse�s Tom Main explained an innovative value chain focused on how a new approach to and integration of five key levers -- market development, customer relationship initiation, consumer engagement, cost/quality of care and performance management -- can allow health plans to win the coverage and affordability battle while improving consumer and physician satisfaction. Health plans representing 35 percent of the U.S. insured population have software licenses for TriZetto�s network management applications. NetworX SuiteTM includes NetworX PricerTM, which automates claims pricing, and NetworX ModelerTM, a provider contract application that payers use to predict the financial impact of provider contracts. TriZetto�s CareAdvance Enterprise� software automates all aspects of care management, including member identification and assessment, guideline-based care planning, member and provider communications, task and team management and ongoing member monitoring. The TriZetto summit this year invited attendees to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity on the day following the conference. Dozens of participants helped in the rebuilding effort that continues in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. About TriZetto TriZetto is Powering Integrated Healthcare Management�. With its technology touching nearly half of the U.S. insured population, TriZetto is uniquely positioned to drive the convergence of health benefit administration, care management and constituent engagement. The company provides premier information technology solutions that enable payers and other constituents in the healthcare supply chain to improve the coordination of benefits and care for healthcare consumers. Healthcare payers include national and regional health insurance plans, and benefits administrators that provide transaction services to self-insured employer groups. The company�s payer-focused information technology offerings include enterprise and component software, hosting and business process outsourcing services, and consulting. Headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., TriZetto can be reached at 949-719-2200 or at www.trizetto.com.