SAN DIEGO, Calif. - June 3, 2009 - At the annual gathering of the industry that facilitates healthcare for nearly all insured Americans, Jeff Margolis, the founder and chief executive of The TriZetto Group, Inc. introduced his new book that provides a unique, simplified perspective that anyone can understand about how our U.S. healthcare system really works and introduces a new, comprehensive model that combines thoughtful and practical systematic design and information technology to substantially improve the value and effectiveness of the healthcare industry. Entitled The Information Cure: Solving the Healthcare Crisis Systematically Through Integrated Healthcare Management, the book debuted at the 2009 Institute of America’s Health Insurance Plans in San Diego and is available at www.informationcure.com and Amazon.com. Every constituent who is part of the American healthcare supply chain should find this 155- page book an easy and informative read, including consumers, physicians, hospital system executives, brokers and employers.

”We are publishing The Information Cure at a critical time because the book offers some important solution approaches that are supportive of and relevant to today’s healthcare reform discussion,” said Margolis. "First, Integrated Healthcare Management (IHM) proposes a new framework for systematically organizing our healthcare system by more fully integrating available benefits information with available care information on behalf of healthcare consumers to create an affordable and sustainable U.S. healthcare model that drives the greatest value for each healthcare dollar spent."

"I also suggest in my book that personal health records, based upon the rich stockpile of existing digitized benefits data, can and should be utilized rapidly to begin delivering the benefits of IHM for our country’s insured population, while at the same time, helping accelerate the drive for adoption of physician practice-based and hospital-based electronic health records over the next several years.”

Margolis imparts that the systems-science approach of IHM to improve information-sharing and incentive alignment among health plans, providers, consumers, employers and brokers brings to mind the well-known parable of the blind men and the elephant. In this parable, retold in Margolis’s book, six blind men cannot correctly discern what the elephant is, in total, because each touches only one part of the animal. A seventh, much wiser blind man studies the creature thoroughly from all sides and is able to understand the fuller context of the beast.

"Much like this parable, too many proposed solutions address only a subset of the U.S. healthcare animal and fail to consider the entire healthcare supply chain.” Margolis said. "I wrote this book because IHM practically addresses how to create systematic change throughout the entire healthcare system and hence can achieve the twin goals of sustainable affordability and continuous improvement in the quality of healthcare.”

Specific applications and examples of IHM will be explained at TriZetto’s booth #601 at AHIP’s Institute 2009 in the San Diego Convention Center Sails Pavilion Exhibit Hall, June 4-5. Additionally, Margolis will be available to sign copies of his book at the booth today from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Known throughout the industry for his passion to improve U.S. healthcare, Margolis is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of The TriZetto Group, Inc., a healthcare IT firm whose information systems help improve the coordination of benefits and care for approximately half of the U.S. insured population. He is the former chief information officer of healthcare payer and provider organizations. Margolis currently serves on the board of directors for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, the board of governors of Cedars-Sinai Hospital in California, the national board of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America and as an advisory member for the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research at the University of California, Irvine. He is a frequent speaker at healthcare industry events, an industry voice in Harvard University’s Forces of Change executive leadership program and the author of numerous published articles about the U.S. healthcare system.

About TriZetto

Founded in 1997, TriZetto is the leading privately held healthcare information technology company to the healthcare payer industry. With its technology touching half of the U.S. insured population, TriZetto is Powering Integrated Healthcare ManagementTM. TriZetto provides information technology solutions that enable health insurance payers and other constituents in the healthcare supply chain to improve the coordination of benefits and care for healthcare consumers. The company's offerings include enterprise and component software, hosting and consulting services that help payers implement and optimize their operations and minimize the risk of bringing new products to market that drive competitive differentiation.

Media Contact:

Loren Finkelstein
The TriZetto Group
303-542-2460
loren.finkelstein@trizetto.com

Melissa Bruno
Schwartz Communications
781-684-0770
trizetto@schwartz-pr.com