ATLANTA, Oct. 2, 1998 — HBOC (Nasdaq:HBOC) today announced the general availability of Release 4.0 of Pathways Smart Medical Record ^® (Pathways SMR ^®), the company’s ambulatory patient record system. As part of HBOC’s Pathways 2000^® product line for health enterprises, Pathways Smart Medical Record allows physicians and clinicians to document, store and retrieve encounter-specific information about patients in their care.

Pathways Smart Medical Release 4.0 enhancements focus on improving communication among caregivers and with patients, and addressing regulatory requirements, according to Sandra Schafer, vice president of product marketing and development for Pathways Smart Medical Record. "The new release builds on the rich functionality of Pathways SMR to bring new capabilities that will make caregivers more productive and better able to substantiate documented care," Schafer said. "The ultimate result is improved patient care."

Release 4.0 features automatic generation of level-of-service codes based on the actual care documented in order to comply with the American Medical Association (AMA) and Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) guidelines for evaluation and management. The AMA/HCFA guidelines not only require physicians to provide more complete documentation, but also describe in detail the information necessary to justify a billing code. "Pathways SMR now supports these guidelines by displaying the evaluation and management level and the CPT code in a way that’s consistent with the depth of patient history documentation, physical examination and medical decision-making," said Schafer.

The new release also includes clinical messaging for caregivers, electronic importation of transcriptions, an updated patient education library, an enhanced medications module, an expanded knowledge base and improved workflow.

HBOC delivers enterprisewide patient care, clinical, financial and strategic management software solutions, as well as networking technologies, electronic commerce, outsourcing and other services to healthcare organizations throughout the world.