MIAMI and ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — OPKO Health, Inc.(NASDAQ:OPK) (“OPKO” or “the Company”), announces that BioReference Laboratories, an OPKO Health company and one of the largest commercial laboratories in the U.S., has formed a national affiliation with The Garage, a dynamic, healthcare technology change agent, to provide clinicians with advanced tools to guide quality, value-based care.
BioReference Laboratories is led by pathologists and is nationally respected for clinical collaboration in laboratory medicine. Based in Elmwood Park, NJ, BioReference is the third largest full service clinical diagnostic laboratory in the U.S., providing testing and related services to physician offices, clinics, hospitals, long term care facilities, employers, governmental units and correctional institutions. The Garage, based in Orlando, FL, is a leading healthcare technology firm deeply rooted in developing advanced population health management tools for its 7,000+ physician base across the country. The Garage’s tools allow clinicians to treat individual patients andsupport the health and well-being of large groups of people in order to prevent sickness – the definition of population health.
Vital patient information found in clinical histories, laboratory tests, genetic profiles – and even in patients’ lifestyles and habits – can be as important to the healing process as any medicine. But healthcare providers lacked a technology platform that can integrate and access such information across all care settings – until now.
Combining The Garage’s Bridge – an advanced technology platform – with BioReference’s deep knowledge of diagnostics and test results will provide physicians with unparalleled insight into their patients’ health status. It will help manage their reporting requirements on standard quality instruments such as HEDIS, PQRS, and GPRO, to improve risk scores and provide better care for individual patients.
Bridge provides comprehensive, 360-degree population health management experience to providers and care teams. In addition to all the standard care coordination tools, physicians can use the intelligent lab ordering system within the platform while patients will have the capability for live consultations using a rich telemedicine application available on the Bridge platform. Also, the platform ensures the physicians’ Electronic Health Records (EHR) are updated with timely patient information.
“Part of what makes BioReference so successful is our focus on patients and physicians,” said Gregory S. Henderson, MD, PHD, President of BioReference Laboratories. “We are doctors first and consider patients as our customers, not insurance companies. This drives us to innovate and develop solutions beyond the most advanced testing that we already provide. We also want to include wise and secure use of patient data that leads to better health, and for these purposes, The Garage’s platform is a perfect fit for this affiliation.”
“We have been working with ACOs and other risk-bearing, value-driven provider organizations since our inception in 2012. Our ability to aggregate and analyze diverse data sets is key to success in population health and our affiliation with BioReference will not only help us broaden our market reach but will also help us serve our customers with deeper insights,” said Pranam Ben, Founder and CEO of The Garage.
The affiliation will be highlighted during the National Association of ACO’s (NAACOS) Fall 2017 Conference, to be held October 4-6, 2017, in Washington, D.C., during a special event hosted by The Garage. The conference will bring together more than 650 leaders from accountable care organizations nationwide. Visit www.naacos.com for more information or to view a full schedule of events.
About BioReference Laboratories, Inc.
BioReference Laboratories is one of the largest and fastest growing full service diagnostic laboratories in the world, providing clinical testing services to physicians, clinics, hospitals, long term care facilities and employers while also advancing drug discovery and development with disease foundations, academic and pharmaceutical partners. BioReference’s comprehensive testing capabilities and expertise spans molecular diagnostics, anatomical pathology, women’s health, oncology and rare disease genetics. For more information, visit www.bioreference.com.
About The Garage
The Garage has deep roots in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and Independent Physicians Associations (IPAs), which has established it as a market leader with its clients, composing 6% of the total ACO market share. While the average savings across the country per ACO was $972,000, The Garage’s average saving for their ACO clients was more than three times that!
The Garage’s full suite Bridge platform for ACO management has a best-in-class feature set to empower ACOs from all tracks to effectively manage their operations and deliver outcomes as a high performance ACO. For more information, visit www.thegaragein.com.
About OPKO Health, Inc.
OPKO Health is a diversified healthcare company that seeks to establish industry-leading positions in large, rapidly growing markets. Our diagnostics business includes BioReference Laboratories, the nation’s third-largest clinical laboratory with a core genetic testing business and a 400-person sales and marketing team to drive growth and leverage new products, including the 4Kscore® prostate cancer test and the Claros® 1 in-office immunoassay platform. Our pharmaceutical business features RAYALDEE, an FDA-approved treatment for SHPT in stage 3-4 CKD patients with vitamin D insufficiency (launched in November 2016), VARUBI® for chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting (oral formulation launched by partner TESARO and IV formulation pending FDA approval), OPK88003, a once weekly oxyntomodulin for type 2 diabetes and obesity which is a clinically advanced drug candidate among the new class of GLP-1 glucagon receptor dual agonists, and OPK88004, a selective androgen receptor modulator being developed for benign prostatic hyperplasia and other urologic and metabolic conditions. Our biologics business includes hGH-CTP, a once weekly human growth hormone injection (in phase 3 and partnered with Pfizer), and a long-acting Factor VIIa drug for hemophilia in phase 2a. We also have production and distribution assets worldwide, multiple strategic investments and an active business development strategy. More information available at www.opko.com.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” as that term is defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), which statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “plans,” “projects,” “will,” “may,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “should,” “intends,” “estimates,” and other words of similar meaning, including statements regarding expected benefits from our strategic affiliation with The Garage, the system’s ability to provide physicians unparalleled insight into patient health status, manage reporting requirements on standard quality instruments, improve risk scores and provide better care for individual patients, statements regarding our product development efforts and the expected benefits of our products, as well as other non-historical statements about our expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding our business, technologies and products, financial condition, strategies or prospects. Many factors could cause our actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements. These factors include those described in our Annual Reports on Form 10-K filed and to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements may also be adversely affected by general market factors, competitive product development, product availability, federal and state regulations and legislation, the regulatory process for new products and indications, manufacturing issues that may arise, patent positions and litigation, among other factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date the statements were made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions of the PSLRA.
View source version on globenewswire.com: https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/09/19/1124611/0/en/OPKO-s-BioReference-Laboratories-and-The-Garage-Announce-National-Strategic-Affiliation-to-Enhance-Value-Based-Care.html
CONTACTS:
The Garage
Kate Rutherford
Phone: 407-730-2286
Email: krutherford@thegaragein.com
WEB: www.thegaragein.com
Sid Dinsay / Jacqueline Zygadlo, MWWPR on behalf of BioReference Laboratories
Phone: 646-381-9017
Email: sdinsay@mww.com / jzygadlo@mww.com
WEB: https://www.bioreference.com
OPKO Health, Inc.
David Malina, 305-575-4100
Investor Relations
dmalina@opko.com
LHA Investor Relations
Anne Marie Fields, 212-838-3777
afields@lhai.com
or
Bruce Voss, 310-691-7100
bvoss@lhai.com
Source: OPKO Health Inc.
News Provided by Acquire Media
