MediMedia Information Technologies Announces Interactive Formulary Reference for Health Plans and PBMs

MediMedia Information Technologies (MediMedia) announces the release of Formulary Navigator™, an innovative formulary content management and publishing suite for health plans and pharmacy benefit providers, driving formulary compliance through the dissemination of comprehensive, accurate, and timely formulary information to key stakeholders. Formulary Navigator’s publishing module includes an innovative dashboard that enables benefit providers to publish formulary data to user-friendly, interactive consumer and professional formulary reference Web sites at a fraction of the cost of similar systems.

The key benefits of MediMedia’s interactive formulary suite are consistency and convenience. Formulary Navigator provides a single source reference that serves the formulary information needs of prospective and current members, healthcare providers and internal stakeholders. Clients may create an array of interactive formulary Web sites in minutes that can be placed anywhere formulary information is required.

MediMedia’s trademark formulary search features and search results pages were carefully designed to be simple and consumer-friendly. Users may search alphabetically, by drug name, or by therapeutic class. Choosing a drug reveals client-selected icons representing formulary status, coverage restrictions, and cost-sharing tier information. The sites also allow for side-by-side comparison of formulary information for products in the same therapeutic category, making it easier for providers and members to make informed decisions. Providers can easily determine if they are prescribing the most cost effective therapy. Current and prospective members are able to determine if their medications are covered, identify restrictions, and view potential cost-effective alternatives. MediMedia also offers free inclusion of formularies within their InfoScan Formulary Database™, used by most of the top e-prescribing and electronic medical record vendors to guide prescribing decisions.

“MediMedia has been hosting searchable formulary Web sites for its payer partners for over a decade. Adding these capabilities to our portfolio of formulary products allows our clients to update their formulary information, make changes to the look and feel of their Web sites and use these sites wherever they wish without incremental costs,” says Tom Donia, MediMedia’s Vice President of Operations.

“Many payers produce industry-standard formulary files. To make things as simple as possible, we designed Formulary Navigator to support standard formats such as HPMS, which CMS requires from Part-D sponsors, as well as NCPDP’s formulary standard, which CMS will soon require for e-prescribing,” states Jeff Mays, who leads the NCPDP Formulary and Benefit task group.

CMS recently announced that all Medicare Part D sponsors must publish approved prior authorization criteria on their Part D plan websites by November 15, 2008. Formulary Navigator meets the CMS requirements, supports the CMS prior authorization file layout, and automatically creates drug-specific links to a benefit provider’s prior authorization criteria.

Formulary Navigator uses a service-oriented architecture (SOA) based on Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), which provides a wide range of usage scenarios for business-to-business (B2B), business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) communication.

About MediMedia Information Technologies

MediMedia Information Technologies, a Division of MediMedia, USA, is the leading provider of formulary information services available today. Formulary Navigator™ consolidates formulary content management and distribution for health plans and pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies, ensuring consistent and timely communications to all information stakeholders. The InfoScan Formulary Database™ (IFDB) is a comprehensive integration of formulary information from managed care organizations (MCO), PBM companies, health maintenance organizations (HMO), preferred provider organizations (PPO), State Medicaid, Medicare Part-D, self-insured employers and other healthcare plans used by e-prescribing and electronic medical record systems to facilitate formulary compliance at the point-of-care. Please visit www.mminfotech.com for a complete overview of MediMedia Information Technologies.

About MediMedia

Headquartered in Chatham, NJ, with over 1,600 employees in offices throughout the United States, MediMedia’s products and services include integrated and comprehensive health management programs, patient education content, and applications purchased by healthcare stakeholders: physicians, patients, employers, hospitals, health plans and pharmaceutical companies. MediMedia’s pharmaceutical marketing group provides solutions for pharmaceutical companies along their entire marketing continuum, targeting physicians and patients with superior content and applications. MediMedia’s experience in delivering specialized information to targeted audiences has earned MediMedia unparalleled trust and respect throughout the industry.

For more information, please visit www.medimedia.com.

MediMedia is a Vestar Capital Partners portfolio company.
Contacts

Contact for information:
Jeff Mays, 267-685-2749
jmays {at} medimedia(.)com
or
Contact for MediMedia:
Renee Verrastro, 973-738-5133
rverrastro {at} medimedia(.)com