Pharos Innovations' Survey Finds That 95% Consider Current Payment System the Largest Barrier to Healthcare Reform

NORTHFIELD, IL, Jun 16 (MARKET WIRE) --
While there are differing opinions about how to achieve national
healthcare reform and reduce healthcare costs, according to a Pharos
Innovations survey of select industry experts, there is almost unanimous
consensus that our current payment system is the biggest barrier to
healthcare reform. Ninety-five percent of respondents ranked the
statement, "Our current system incents providers for quantity not quality
of care," as the primary reason that the American healthcare system is
not delivering maximum outcomes and cost savings. Survey respondents
included attendees of the "Getting to the Value Quadrant of Healthcare
Reform" panel discussion hosted by Pharos.

"We have a real opportunity this year to begin to change the delivery
system from one that focuses on acute care driven to one that is more
focused on preventive-based care," said Tracey Moorhead, president of
DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance, during the panel discussion.

"Our system, particularly the fee-for-service Medicare system, isn't set
up to deal with chronic care patients in terms of incentive payment
structure and delivery system infrastructure," added Kenneth Thorpe, PhD,
professor and chair of the Rollins Schools of Public Health at Emory
University and executive director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic
Disease. "If we make even minor, modest investments to include care
coordination, we can make an enormous difference in the health outcomes
of patients and our total healthcare spend."

Forty percent of survey respondents indicated that the second largest
barrier to healthcare reform is that "most current care collaboration
programs aren't easily scalable across broad populations" and 45%
considered it to be that the "current system doesn't always facilitate
easy access to care, particularly for rural, hard-to-reach populations."

"There is a large opportunity to dramatically reduce healthcare costs in
chronic disease populations by using simple, scalable chronic care
management models that are already well-proven," said Randall Williams,
MD, CEO of Pharos Innovations. "Pharos has demonstrated sustainable and
highly reproducible results across different geographic regions and
implementation models."

According to the survey, 64% of respondents felt that changing the current
incentive structure to one that pays for care quality is "the best way" to
reach the Value Quadrant of Healthcare Reform (VQHR), which Pharos
Innovations defines as "the optimal, technology-leveraged approach to
chronic care management that unifies disease registry functionality, care
coordination and remote patient monitoring technology at the point of
care delivery for maximum healthcare outcomes and cost savings."

The "Getting to the Value Quadrant of Healthcare Reform" panel discussion
brought together healthcare industry experts during the 2009 Medicaid
Congress and National Medicare Readmissions Summit, held in Washington,
D.C., June 1-2, 2009.

About Pharos Innovations

Founded in 1995, Pharos Innovations assists healthcare providers and
payers in achieving next generation clinical and financial performance
improvement. An innovative, device-free remote patient monitoring
platform, Tel-Assurance(R), improves care coordination and drives dramatic
clinical improvement and cost savings. Our enabling technologies
proactively involve patients in their care and result in the early
identification of clinical deterioration.

Tel-Assurance substantially expands the reach, efficiency and
effectiveness of clients' current health management programs for complex
chronic conditions. The Pharos solution is strongly validated to show
measured clinical improvement and financial impact, is the recipient of
the prestigious American Heart Association National Outcomes award and was
selected for the first ever National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored
evaluation of remote monitoring interventions. For more information visit
www.pharosinnovations.com.

Contact:
Shawn-Laree De St. Aubin
773-802-0377
Email Contact

or

Bonni L. Kaplan
Pharos Innovations
847-790-7649
Email Contact

Copyright 2009, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

-0-