IEHIE, SynerMed form partnership

SynerMed, Inc. announced today that it has formed a partnership with IEHIE (www.iehie.org) that will link patient health information to medical providers across California. SynerMed brings an additional 650,000 lives and more than 10,000 contracted physicians in Sacramento, Fresno, Madera, Kings, Los Angeles and San Diego counties to join the existing pool of 4.1 million members and 2800 providers that currently comprise the exchange. IEHIE offers an enhanced Health Information Exchange (HIE) service, which allows doctors, clinics, hospitals and other healthcare providers to electronically review and access medical records, resulting in timely, safer and improved quality of healthcare for patients, particularly those in underserved and disadvantaged populations.

SynerMed (www.synermed.com) is a leading Managed Services Organization that provides a suite of healthcare information technology services that support the traditional independent physician.

"This deal provides a big part of the infrastructure to allow our independent traditional physicians and their patients to gain greater access to community health data, and delivers healthcare information exchange to a broad population. We are committed to the success of these physicians because they are important members of the healthcare safety net. Until now, there has not been a sustainable model that was available to everyone," said SynerMed President and Chief Executive Officer James Mason.

Many government-sponsored programs that provide financial resources to public nonprofit organizations that work to help the underserved and disadvantaged populations are struggling to launch and are not self-sustainable. They are primarily focused on public hospitals and community clinics, critical members of the safety net but only part; the needs of traditional independent physicians, who service an estimated 70% of the Medi-Cal safety net (and increasing), continue to be neglected.

"We are excited about our partnership with IEHIE and the ability to offer advanced technology that gives physicians and hospitals a system of care that allows the economically disadvantaged (under-insured, non-insured and insured) Medi-Cal population to experience high-quality care and greater access," said Mason.