Australia's largest private health fund, Medibank Private, has established a service agreement with Health Communications Network (HCN) for Medical Director - Australia's leading clinical management software package for general practitioners (GPs) and medical specialists.
Medical Director is used by over 16,000 GPs and specialists across the country. Medical Director is owned by HCN, a publicly listed company and leader in the provision of e-health services in Australia.
The three-year arrangement will see Medibank Private promote its brand and services on the Medical Director software package.
Medibank Private will also work with HCN to enhance the software's functionality to give GPs easy access to Medibank Private product and service information.
HCN Managing Director Mike Gregg said he was pleased to have a health industry leader such as Medibank Private join HCN's strategic partners.
"I am very excited about working with Medibank Private on future developments that we believe will benefit both doctors and patients alike," Mr Gregg said.
Medibank Private Managing Director George Savvides said that the health fund's long-term aim in the partnership was to add value for its three million members.
"Medical specialists and general practitioners are vital parts of Australia's public and private health systems," Mr Savvides said.
"We value the opportunity through this agreement to extend a new layer of service to our members via the broader primary care environment.
"As Australia's largest private health insurer, we estimate that as many as 80% of our members would visit a GP on average each year. And figures show that 16 percent of people who visit a GP ask about private health cover.
"It therefore makes sense for us to ensure that doctors can access information about our products and value-added services for our members - and Medical Director is an ideal vehicle to help us achieve this."
"We believe this partnership with HCN will help our members get the most from their private health cover", Mr Savvides said.
About HCN
HCN is Australia's leading e-health company, having pioneered the delivery of internet-based health information resources. Over 16,000 doctors use HCN's Medical Director clinical management software across the country. About 85 per cent of those GP's who are computerised, use Medical Director to write around 90 million prescriptions each year. HCN now has a doctors' portal: australiandoctor.com.au, giving doctors access to its online knowledge resources. Having one of the world's most comprehensive commercial collections of online knowledge resources, HCN also services over 80% of Australia's medium to large hospitals.
With over 2700 general practice and specialist sites, HCN has built a market leading position in practice management software solutions and services. HCN has also entered the radiology information system arena with the iRIS product, offering an advanced solution available in both client-server and application service provider models.