Following the acquisition of financial and administrative healthcare tools provider Per-Se Technologies by McKesson, the connectivity assets from both companies will be formed into a new business known as RelayHealth. RelayHealth will expand on McKesson's current physician-patient communications business with a focus on helping to decrease administrative costs and improve care by connecting physicians and other providers, pharmacies, payors, and consumers, the company said.
 
"We see a great opportunity to use our Web-based solutions and pharmacy and payor networks to make care delivery more interactive and better connected," said Pamela Pure, president of McKesson Provider Technologies. "We're also excited about the ability to accelerate growth in markets like small physician practices and retail pharmacies while building even stronger relationships in our hospital and payor bases."
 
With integration efforts under way, McKesson plans to leverage Per-Se's expertise in revenue cycle management for physician practices. As a total solution provider, McKesson will offer a complete package of healthcare IT, revenue cycle outsourcing, connectivity services and supplies. "Our goal is to enable physicians to focus on practicing medicine while we provide the technology, supplies and back-office support to manage their practices and help ensure quality care delivery," said Pure.
 
In the hospital, Per-Se's revenue cycle outsourcing and network transactions business complement McKesson's revenue cycle management offerings. Per-Se also brings capabilities for managing high-acuity areas like surgical departments, as well as an innovative Web-based staff scheduling solution that enables nurses and others on the care team to request extra shifts based on their preferences, workload and patient acuity.
 
For retail and high-volume pharmacies, Per-Se augments McKesson's capabilities in retail and institutional pharmacy management software.
 
"McKesson has been highly focused on broadening its portfolio of offerings to pharmacists," said Stanton J. McComb, president, McKesson Pharmacy Systems. "Per-Se brings a fully-integrated suite of products to address the needs of the large retail, national chain pharmacies as well as mail order and outpatient pharmacies."
 
The goal of the new RelayHealth business is to improve how physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, payors and patients share information, interact and collaborate to improve the quality of care, McKesson said.
 
RelayHealth will operate in a vendor-neutral manner, supporting connectivity and interoperability with both McKesson and non-McKesson solutions. Its capabilities for managing the flow of information and connecting healthcare are as follows:

• In the area of pharmacy solutions, RelayHealth combines the Per-Se Intelligent Network with McKesson pharmacy networking services to process more than 8.5 billion pharmacy transactions annually and maintain connections to more than 90 percent of the nation's pharmacies;
• For payors and providers, RelayHealth will leverage the McKesson Transaction Solutions Hub and related services with Per-Se's corresponding revenue cycle management offerings; and
• In the consumer space, RelayHealth will continue to grow its physician-patient connectivity and care management tools and services that connect physicians with their patients, other physicians, providers, pharmacies and payors.