News in brief - June 27, 2005

MinuteClinic hires fast-food exec - Vendors join up to sell to RHIOs - Mich. Blues, physicians inventory IT - RehabCare Group buys hospitals

MinuteClinic hires fast-food exec

MinuteClinic, which offers medical clinics in retail stores, has hired the former president and CEO of the Arby's fast-food chain as its new chief executive officer.

Michael C. Howe held the position at Arby's from 1999 to 2004. Howe, who had served as an independent business consultant since stepping down from Arby's in early 2004, replaces Linda Hall Whitman, CEO of the company since 2002. Whitman, who became CEO two years after MinuteClinic's founding, becomes its chief operating officer.

Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic has 22 clinics in Target, Cub Foods, CVS and other locations in Minnesota and Maryland, with plans for expansion. MinuteClinic in September 2004 received $15 million in venture-capital funding and plans to use the money to expand into at least 10 more markets.

MinuteClinic offers quick, convenient checkups with no appointments for patients 18 months and older.

Clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners, although the MinuteClinic says a physician oversees locations, and patients with more complicated conditions are advised to see a doctor elsewhere.

Vendors join up to sell to RHIOs

Eight health care technology companies have formed a consortium to market prepackaged software and service solutions to emerging regional health information organizations.

CollaboraCare Consortium LLC expects more vendors to become members. Its charter members are MEDecision Inc., case, disease and utilization management software; DrFirst Inc., electronic prescribing; Healthvision Inc., tools linking physicians, hospitals and patients; Hx Technologies Inc., health information exchanges; iMetrikus Inc., personal health records software; Wellogic Inc., electronic medical records software; HealthTrio Inc., administrative systems for insurers; and Cardtronic Technology Inc., smart cards.

Mich. Blues, physicians inventory IT

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan and three physician and hospital organizations have banded together to conduct a statewide inventory of medical information technology in physician and hospital offices.

Under the initiative, the Blues plan and the Partnership for Michigan's Health -- composed of the Michigan State Medical Society, Michigan Osteopathic Assn. and the Michigan Health & Hospital Assn. -- will work to catalog, among other things, electronic medical records databases, hospital and physician Web portals, compatibility of business information systems and electronic prescribing capabilities in the state.

RehabCare Group buys hospitals

RehabCare Group, a provider of therapy and program management services, is taking over four freestanding hospitals under a new purchase agreement.

The St. Louis-based company has reached a deal to buy the operating assets of MeadowBrook Healthcare for $35 million.

MeadowBrook, based in Birmingham, Ala., operates two inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and two long-term acute care hospitals in Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. It had revenues of approximately $53 million in 2004.

RehabCare offers therapy and management services in conjunction with more than 890 hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in 37 states.

The deal is expected to close by the end of July.