Portico Systems, the Blue Bell, Penn.-based maker of Integrated Provider Management (IPM) solutions, and Glenridge HealthCare Solutions, a professional services and data management firm specializing in provider network development, managed care contracting and health plan operations, are announcing a new partnership that will integrate Portico’s Provider Management Platform with Glenridge’s provider network development and provider contract services. The integration enables health plans to reduce their administration costs, while accelerating their growth into new geographic markets and/or rapidly creating new provider networks.

Microsoft announced the Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a strategic sales and service-enabled customer relationship management (CRM) platform that will allow health plans to quickly and easily move their marketing and sales processes online to better manage and monitor sales, member service and retention. As a result, health plans will be able to better compete in the individual and small-group market, reduce multiple points of failure in their current sales, service and retention processes, and interoperate with state health insurance exchanges.

Intelimedix, a Lakeland, Fla.-based business intelligence company focused on multi-relational data mining and advanced analytics, announced a strategic partnership with integrated loss control service provider TC3 Health, of Irvine, Calif. The partnership will combine the company's core capabilities to offer public and private health plans a comprehensive medical cost-management solution that includes identification of preventable conditions and unnecessary treatment, clinical code editing, and fraud, waste, and abuse detection.

SCAN Health Plan, a Medicare Advantage plan serving more than 110,000 members in California and Arizona, announced the launch of a new online educational initiative dedicated to improving education and patient care in the field of geriatrics. Through Web-based training and access to expert instructors, the new site (scancme.com) offers learning modules focused on educating physicians and other healthcare professionals in the management of chronic disease and common geriatric conditions. SCAN’s Continuing Medical Education/Performance Improvement Education (CME/PIE) Program will focus on issues in geriatric medicine and healthcare delivery, the introduction of new skills, practices and technologies, and the dissemination of new research findings.