Novell Net Services Software Enables Metropolitan Health to Cut Costs, Improve Patient Care and Meet the Challenges of New Government Healthcare Regulations

Novell, Inc. today announced that Metropolitan Health Corporation of Grand Rapids, MI, a leading health and managed care provider, is standardizing on Novell Net services software

26 September 2000

  • Novell's Net Services Software Helps Secure Patient Records, Simplify and Accelerate Patient and Doctor Access
  • Metropolitan Health Standardizes on Novell Net Services to Satisfy HIPAA Requirements
  • Novell eDirectory Powering Metropolitan Health's Transformation to eBusiness

Novell, Inc. today announced that Metropolitan Health Corporation of Grand Rapids, MI, a leading health and managed care provider, is standardizing on Novell® Net services software to ensure cost-savings, improve patient care and meet the challenges of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Novell's NDS® eDirectory is helping Metropolitan Health Corporation move their operations to the Net by allowing them to capture identity information and personalize interaction with doctors, healthcare organizations of all sizes, individual partners, customers and vendors. Using a broad range of proven Novell technologies including NetWare®, ZENworks™, BorderManager, GroupWise® and ManageWise®, Metropolitan Health Corporation is creating a unified network environment one Net for healthcare. This allows them to simplify and accelerate doctor and patient access to confidential health records and information, while also securing information against unwanted disclosure and access.

Novell's Net services software has significantly accelerated Metropolitan Health Corporation's transformation away from time-consuming, outdated ways of doing business by addressing their eBusiness challenges and the government regulations facing healthcare organizations today. "Ensuring compliance with HIPAA and other industry regulations is a real challenge for us," said William Lewkowski, Chief Information Officer at Metropolitan Health Corporation of Grand Rapids, MI. "There are significant time and cost factors in meeting all of the Act's requirements, but Novell's Net services software has given us a head start on our preparations. In some cases, such as with eDirectory and ZENworks, Novell already enables us to meet the new requirements. This has saved us a great deal of money and administrative resources."

Novell's industry-leading eDirectory is the core of Novell's Net services software, providing the foundation for eBusiness initiatives for companies across a number of industries. Leveraging the security and flexibility of eDirectory, Metropolitan Health Corporation is now able to address a number of HIPAA challenges. This includes managing and enforcing end user security policies, securing transmission of identifiable patient information over public networks, managing system and application access, and maintaining current hardware and software maintenance records.

Novell's Net Services Software Reduces Total Cost of Ownership
In the United States, the healthcare industry spends an estimated $200 billion a year on administration, unrelated to the actual delivery of healthcare. In an effort to bring rapidly mounting costs under control, healthcare companies such as Metropolitan Health are moving to the Internet to improve internal and external business processes. As these companies transform their business to eBusinesses, they must ensure compliance with HIPAA, a comprehensive measure established in 1996 designed to protect the security and confidentiality of electronic health information distributed over private and public networks. Novell's Net services software allows healthcare organizations to establish a foundation that addresses HIPAA challenges, while reducing total cost of ownership.

"Novell's Net Services software not only helps Metropolitan Health save costs and simplify administrative processes, but is also accelerating their ability to address some pressing regulatory issues," said Alex Salehi, vice president of Novell Consulting. "The HIPAA regulations will improve the business relationship between providers and plans, while ultimately benefiting patients. Novell is helping this industry accelerate their eBusiness transformation, leveraging existing systems and business practices."

"Through Novell Consulting, we are applying our comprehensive range of Net service software to solve business issues in the healthcare market," continued Salehi. "Together with our partners, we are combining our expertise in directory-enabled technology to help health care providers build "one Net" for healthcare solutions."

About Novell Consulting
Novell Consulting offers a HIPAA Security Assessment to identify IT solutions for the challenges posed by HIPAA. This onsite offering provides an assessment to build "one Net" for Healthcare made up of Net services software combined with offerings from our partners. For more detailed information on Novell Consulting offerings related to HIPAA, go to the following URL http://www.novell.com/consulting.

About Novell
Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL), is the leading provider of Net services software that delivers services to secure and power all types of networks--the Internet, intranets, and extranets; wired to wireless; corporate and public--across leading operating systems. Novell's Net services software provides the foundation for one Net--a single global network that supports new applications and forms of business. Worldwide channel, consulting, education and technical support programs, along with strategic alliances, combine Novell Net services software with third-party products and services to form complete Net solutions.

For information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom. In addition, detailed comparisons between Novell products and competitive offerings from other vendors are available on the Web at http://www.novell.com/competitive.

Novell and NDS are registered trademarks, and eDirectory is a trademark of Novell Inc. in the United States and other countries. *All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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