Microsoft Initiative Aims to Help Health Plans Improve Costs of Doing Business

Washington, D.C. - Microsoft Corp. has launched a technology framework for the health plan industry, called "Knowledge Driven Health Plans." The announcement came as Microsoft participated in the third annual World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C.As health plans face mounting pressure to respond to the rising costs of healthcare, growing member and provider expectations, intense competition, regulation, and the inefficiencies of a fragmented care-delivery ecosystem, Microsoft's Knowledge Driven Health Plans solutions framework is designed to deliver a technology platform that enables seamless business transformation. Microsoft and its industry partners are working together to provide health plans with integrated solutions designed to improve collaboration and access to information, thereby empowering people to make business and healthcare decisions that are based on the best evidence available.

"The need for health plans to innovate is more critical today than ever before in the face of rising healthcare costs and a system that is shifting consumers toward the center of the decision-making process," says Dennis Schmuland, M.D., industry director for health plans at Microsoft. "Microsoft and its industry partners are delivering technologies and solutions that enable health plans to substantially improve the health and experience of the consumer while holding costs down."