CARELIKE LLC ACQUIRES DATABASE ASSETS OF MORE THAN 250,000 HEALTHCARE SERVICE PROVIDERS

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, November 13, 2012 — CareLike LLC, an affiliate of HealthLink Dimensions™LLC, has acquired the assets of Seattle-based SNAPforSeniors, Inc. (SNAP), including the technology and comprehensive healthcare services provider database. CareLike is a newly formed data and technology company providing access to robust information on more than 250,000 healthcare entities segmented into 27 categories of care providers, including long term care, outpatient facilities, home care, transportation, diabetes care and other local community-based services that support patient transitional or extended care needs. CareLike's data sets allow consumers and professionals to make more informed healthcare decisions by having quick and easy access to an objective and updated set of local community resource records in all 50 states. The CareLike data is available to clients through a range of flexible web offerings from branded websites, file extracts or access through an API. Many clients integrate CareLike's data into their existing applications (i.e., CRM, provider network management, case/condition management) for improved information and referrals to the families they serve. Currently, CareLike's data management services are utilized by large healthcare insurance plans, commercial websites, hospitals/integrated delivery systems and patient advocacy organizations to assist their users to source and screen the services they require. Providers who want to reach targeted professional users and qualified consumers can leverage CareLike's data distribution network of licensees with affordable advertising programs. "The formation of CareLike and acquisition of the data and technology assets from SNAPforSeniors was an ideal complement to HealthLink Dimensions' physician and allied health data sets,” says Kevin Guthrie, vice president and general manager of HealthLink Dimensions and who will also have oversight of CareLike. "Our combined commitment to quality data can deliver more value to existing and future clients who were trying to maintain their own databases.” Guthrie adds, "As a national data leader, we are entering 2013 better positioned to respond to the market's need for cost effective data solutions that support transitions of care." For more information about CareLike, visit www.CareLike.com or call 404-250-8371, and HealthLink Dimensions, visit www.HealthLinkDimensions.com or call 404-250-3900. About CareLike LLC CareLike LLC (www.CareLike.com) is a data and technology services company that provides access to detailed data on more than 27 categories of providers and 250,000 healthcare services providers. The CareLike database serves as a comprehensive provider search solution for health plans, call centers, patient advocacy groups, employee assistance programs and consumer information publishers. About HealthLink Dimensions Based in Atlanta, Georgia, HealthLink Dimensions (www.HealthLinkDimensions.com) manages the largest multi-sourced database of active practicing physicians, offering flexible data solutions that facilitate multi-channel marketing and communications. Over 900,000 unique B2B permissioned, verified and deliverable email addresses are linked to practicing healthcare providers with practice/billing address, phone and fax. These demographic files, totaling over 2.3M physicians and allied health professionals, are strengthened with titles, specialties, multiple identifiers including DEA number, UPIN number, State License number, NPI number and Tax ID; and with linkage to hospital and group practice affiliations. TSH Editor's Comments: Here it is folks, another trailblazing Seattle-based Company in the senior care space, SNAPforSeniors, finds a home. This migration started way back in the early 00's when A Place for Mom received $9MM in financing from Battery Ventures and others. Seattle was, and still continues to be, a hotbed for the development of senior-focused ideas, and the launchpad for so many start-ups in the senior care space. Congrats to Eve and all the SNAP folks. BB

Connected Health Lights Up Boston

Connected healthcare, from remote monitoring to greater connectivity among providers, encompasses a wide range of topics and it seemed that most of those topics were covered during last week’s ninth annual Connected Health Symposium in Boston. Gary L. Gottlieb, MD, MBA, president and CEO of Partners HealthCare System in Boston, said the challenges of healthcare reform present enormous opportunity for innovation. Healthcare reform is “a major commitment to society we need to take on together,” he told his audience. If the aging population, increase in those with chronic conditions and rising healthcare expenditures “goes unchecked, our accountability to society also goes unchecked.” There is potential for tremendous effects, he said. However, “the opportunity to do greater good could be diminished if we focus on cost alone.” Greater coordination will lead to more effective and more efficient care, Gottlieb said, citing the statistic that 30 percent of what we spend on healthcare is wasted. “We know that transactional fee-for-service medicine creates fragmentation. No coordination with other components will only use resources that appear to be near to home. Even with the most sophisticated EHRs, without connectedness between patients and families and providers and a series of other providers, we will fail.” And David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, former national coordinator of health IT and incoming president of the Commonwealth Fund, discussed the steps involved in creating a nationwide health information network, an effort he said that dwarfs just about all other human achievements. The technical requirements of a nationwide network include standards that work and are incorporated into EHRs. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is making progress, he said, calling the latest standards issued in August “a major step forward.” But more regulations are required. Continuation of the Meaningful Use framework is important as well, said Blumenthal. “Meaningful Use is the number one force driving the incorporation of standards into electronic health information systems. It creates incentives and a mechanism for enforcing the incentive to put standards into EHRs and get providers to use those systems to exchange information.” Another issue impacting the creation of a nationwide health information network is the need for a more nimble and responsible, user-friendly approach to privacy and security. We’ve been hearing of the coming “big data deluge” and while it has the potential to help improve clinical care, that will take some time, according to the participants of a panel discussion. A lot of the big talk about big data is just talk. “Big data are 49 percent real and 51 percent hype,” said Michael Weintraub, MBA, president and CEO of Humedica. He estimated there were maybe 10 companies offering big data services a year ago and approximately 30 as of six months ago. “To those buying big data, buyer beware. Everyone has updated their PowerPoints to become a big data vendor.” The reality is that it will be a long time before big data turns into actionable information that clinicians can use to improve the care they provide, according to Charlie Baker, MBA, entrepreneur-in-residence at General Catalyst Partners in Cambridge, Mass. Right now, big data are of more use to researchers and policymakers funding research than to frontline providers. “Big data to most folks practicing medicine is a great idea, but not something they believe will help them improve quality in the short term.” Part of the reason it will take so long is because there is so much, but it’s also because the relationship between healthcare stakeholders is complex and “people are complicated,” as Chris Kryder, MD, CEO of D2Hawkeye in Jersey City, N.J., put it. Beth Walsh, Editor, CMIO TSH Editor's Comments: It is becoming more and more clear that the senior housing industry needs to understand that it is connected to a larger continuum, or spectrum of healthcare provider organizations. To achieve the level of care coordination that is forecasted we must adopt a new approach to technology and focus more on becoming interoperable with the rest of the spectrum. BB