PORTLAND, May 20, 2004–Qmedtrix has won the American Stevie Award for Best Product Development Team in the second annual American Business Awards, honoring the efforts, accomplishments and positive contributions of companies and business people throughout the nation.

Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevie Awards recognize outstanding leadership, innovation, perseverance, creativity, teamwork and integrity through more than 40 categories. This year, more than 800 nominations from companies of all sizes–from Fortune 100 to smaller–and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration.

The Product Development team was recognized for designing and creating Qmedtrix’s advanced and innovative decision software and systems for health care cost-containment.

“We’re proud of the numerous accomplishments of the Product Development team and congratulate them on winning the prestigious Stevie,” said Dr. Merrit Quarum, CEO and president, Qmedtrix.Their outstanding efforts allow Qmedtrix to offer cost-containment solutions that provide fair compensation to providers, encourage quality care for patients and offer a remedy for the health care crisis in America.”

Qmedtrix’s dynamic development team—including product development, system development and quality assurance experts—continuously researches, codes and tests to enhance the unique rules engine and proprietary database that support Qmedtrix services and systems. "Determining the appropriate charges for every medical service in every geographic area requires a unique knowledge base," said Mike Raffaele, chief operations officer and senior vice president.

The development management team is led by Andy James, vice president, Product Development, and reports to Raffaele. Leadership in 2003 also was contributed by Michael Thornton, manager, Systems Development; and Yvonne Alderman, former manager, Quality Assurance.

Overseeing the technology infrastructure supporting Product Development are Erich Mueller, senior vice president, chief financial officer and chief technology officer; and Mike Cook, assistant vice president and director of Information Technology. Current leadership also includes John Pierce, assistant vice president, Information Systems; Steve Merryman, Analysis manager; and Gabriella Fiore, Quality Assurance manager.

According to Raffaele, the team has done an excellent job in capturing, analyzing, maintaining and using nationwide current and historical medical service data for both paid and charged amounts. The team also has been successful in customizing interfaces for each customer’s unique communications and data exchange methods.

“Moreover, in 2003, the team took an established service–BillChek–and expanded both the services it offers and its scope. BillChek is now a total out-of-network nationwide solution for every bill type in every line of health care,” Raffaele said.

The Product Development team also supported the establishment of a new wholly owned subsidiary, Qmedworx. Qmedworx negotiates charges for all types of bills in all lines of coverage nationwide by using Qmedtrix’s rules engine and database to identify inaccurate charges and abuses. Qmedworx begins negotiations from a “baseline” of what charges should be, rather than negotiating down from the originally inflated bill. The result is a more effective, cost-based approach to negotiating medical fee settlements.

“As a team, we’re dedicated to taking Dr. Quarum’s vision for creating advanced and innovative systems and software solutions for health care cost-containment,” said Andy James, vice president of Product Development.

Other integral members of Qmedtrix's award-winning team include:

Complete lists of International Stevie winners and other details are available at www.stevieawards.com/aba.

About Qmedtrix
Qmedtrix is one of the nation's leading decision software firms specializing in health care cost-containment solutions. Qmedtrix offers a complete spectrum of systems and services to support the efforts of its clients. The company’s rules engine and proprietary database set the industry standard.

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