A Medical Device Daily

Healthways (Nashville, Tennessee) has inked an agreement to purchase Axia Health Management (Tempe, Arizona) for $450 million.

The acquisition, anticipated to be accretive to Healthways’ financial results for FY07, is expected to close before the end of the calendar year, assuming satisfaction of customary conditions.

The company said the transaction will be financed through a combination of cash on hand and committed bank debt.

“Our agreement to purchase Axia represents a major step forward in our continuing strategy to provide, or enable our customers to provide, WholeHealth solutions, a full spectrum of integrated, personalized, proven and evidence-based interventions to maintain or improve health and productivity,” said Ben Leedle, president/CEO of Healthways.

“Axia’s programs, when combined with our current set of Health and Care Support services, will transform the market and clearly position us as the industry leader and partner of choice for commercial and Medicare Advantage health plans, employers and government. Further, the addition of Axia’s unique national network will enable consumers to obtain everything from in-person health coaching, fitness center access and online communities of interest, to telephonic lifestyle management, condition and disease management, high-risk care management and end-of-life support in the manner that best suits their needs and lifestyles.”

Together, Healthways and Axia will have more than 120 health plan customers whose membership totals more than 165 million covered lives. The combined organization will employ about 3,500 people. In addition, Axia’s SilverSneakers program is currently available to nearly three million Medicare Advantage lives. Its QuitNet smoking cessation program has more than 300,000 users, making it one of the largest smoking cessation communities in the world.

RehabCare Group (St. Louis) and St. Luke’s Hospital (Chesterfield, Missouri) reported that they intend to form a joint venture to develop, own and operate a new physical rehabilitation hospital on the campus of Surrey Place, a skilled nursing facility owned by St. Luke’s near its main facility. Financial terms of the joint venture were not disclosed.

Construction is expected to be complete by late 2008, pending receipt of necessary approvals. The new 35-bed, approximately 35,000-square-foot facility will provide medical and therapy services for residents of St. Louis County, who are in need of inpatient physical rehabilitation.

Under the agreement, RehabCare and St. Luke’s will collaborate to provide management and staffing services for the rehabilitation hospital, including certain ancillary needs.

Gary Olson, St. Luke’s president/CEO, said the agreement follows several months of investigating solutions for a patient population that continues to grow in the hospital’s 16-bed acute rehabilitation unit.

RehabCare’s St. Louis metropolitan market currently includes management of two inpatient rehabilitation units in Madison County, Illinois, four outpatient therapy clinics, one home health agency and nearly 60 skilled nursing facility programs.

RehabCare is a provides of rehabilitation program management, servicing more than 24,000 patient visits each day in conjunction with more than 1,400 hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

In other dealmaking news: Calvert Health Partners (Baltimore) recently acquired three private home health agencies covering 30 counties throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

The three agencies are Advantage Care (Shenandoah), serving western Virginia/Shenandoah Valley area; Home Care Connection (Richmond); and Tama Health (Norfolk), which serves the Norfolk and Virginia Beach market.

David Nelson, company president/CEO, said that Calvert Health plans to integrate the operations of the entities, which comprise a mix of Medicare-certified and JCAHO-accredited providers, along with non-skilled healthcare delivery in Medicaid and private duty care.

Pharmacy benefit managers push e-prescribing

A new survey published by Health Affairs finds that less than one in 10 physicians use e-prescribing as part of an electronic health record (EHR) system, underscoring the fact that more must be done to encourage widespread physician adoption of this technology.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA; Washington), an organization for pharmacy benefit managers, said that Congress should act quickly to create a national, uniform e-prescribing standard that will save lives and reduce costs for consumers and payors.

“Physicians aren’t using e-prescribing technology, in part because of the myriad of state laws and the new Medicare standard make it complicated to use. The fact that physicians have to conform to multiple e-prescribing standards is a hindrance to adoption,” said PCMA President Mark Merritt.

“For example, a physician in Washington, DC would have to comply with DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Medicare standards to meet all their patients’ needs. These findings confirm that Congress must adopt a national e-prescribing standard that will encourage widespread adoption by physicians, resulting in greater quality, safety and reduced costs.”