(PHOENIX)—May 21, 2002: Mercer Human Resource Consulting, one of the world’s leading consulting organizations, has signed an agreement with Symmetry Health Data Systems, Inc., to use Symmetry’s Episode Treatment Groups™ (ETG). The episode grouping methodology will be used in the development of products and services for Mercer clients.
Symmetry’s ETG is a patented illness classification and episode building software product that correctly assigns all healthcare claims data, regardless of origin into episodes of care. Licensing ETGs to virtually all responsible vendors of healthcare information systems has provided Symmetry with unprecedented access to a benchmark database composed of administrative and clinical data representing more than 400 health care plans from every state in the country.
"We work with several episode grouping methodologies, and believe Episode Treatment Groups from Symmetry is the best product to meet the requirements of our new consulting programs," says Bill Maloney, a Principal at Mercer. "We are incorporating ETGs into several of our benchmarking products to help our clients plan for intelligent resource utilization. The ETGs are also one of the principal elements used in developing our ‘Effective Networks’ program for our corporate, Medicaid, and health plan clients. These networks are one of the most effective methods for reducing health care cost in the current health care environment."
"Innovative companies like Mercer Human Resource Consulting keep pushing the envelope, finding new uses for ETGs," says Mitchell A. Portnoy, M.P.H., COO of Symmetry. "Being selected by a company as prestigious as Mercer shows once again how flexible and widely accepted ETGs have become."
Mercer Human Resource Consulting is a global firm that helps organizations create business value through their people. Headquartered in New York and with offices in 40 US cities, the company is part of Mercer Consulting Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., which lists its stock (ticker symbol: MMC) on the New York, Chicago, Pacific, and London stock exchanges.
Symmetry Health Data Systems, Inc.®, a health care analytic tool developer, was founded in 1993. Symmetry's principals invented many of the techniques and software platforms that today are industry standards for Managed Care organizations, insurance carriers, Fortune 1000 corporations, as well as the Federal government. Episode Treatment Groups™ (ETGs™) are protected under United States Patents 5,835,897 and 6,370,511. United States and International patents pending. Visit Symmetry Health Data Systems, Inc. on the Web at http://www.symmetry-health.com.