Category: News

SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Primary care physicians (“PCPs”) can more effectively manage the total cost of care when managing the healthcare needs of a covered population. Cave Consulting Group (“CCGroup”) reached this conclusion after evaluating the performance of several health plan accountable care and value-based reimbursement programs.

“On average, PCPs are involved in treating 57% of all prevalent medical condition episodes of care. This means patients are self-referring to specialists 43% of the time,” stated Dr. Douglas G. Cave, President of CCGroup. Continue reading →

SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nationally over 230,000 primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists are evaluated based on achieving acceptable clinical protocol ranges in treating medical conditions (or Clinical MedMarker Protocol Ranges™). “CCGroup works with CCGroup National Specialist Panels on an ongoing basis. This effort helps to ensure the validity of established Clinical MedMarker Protocol Ranges™,” stated Dr. Douglas G. Cave, President of CCGroup. CCGroup is the market innovator and leader in reliably measuring physician efficiency. Dr. Cave continued, “MedMarkers™ are process of care quality measures, well-defined in clinical guidelines. However, they also are the key services and procedures most associated with cost-of-care in treating a medical condition. MRI of spine is the main MedMarker™ (or correlated service) in treating low back pain; and upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is the main MedMarker™ in treating GERD (or heartburn). MedMarkers™ technology is protected under USPTO Patent Numbers 8,301,464 and 8,751,263.”

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SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CCGroup is the market innovator and leader in reliably measuring physician efficiency. Just one year ago, a California federal jury awarded Cave Consulting Group, Inc. (CCGroup) more than $12 million after determining that OptumInsight’s Impact Intelligence infringes CCGroup’s patent for measuring physician efficiency. “No other competitor to CCGroup is allowed to offer our analytics, methods, and system – unless they have a license from CCGroup to do so,” declared Dr. Douglas G. Cave, President of CCGroup.

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SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A California federal jury determined that UnitedHealth Group’s subsidiary OptumInsight infringed Cave Consulting Group’s patent for measuring physician efficiency. The federal jury determined that OptumInsight infringed the U.S. Patent No. 7,739,126 (“‘126 patent”) by operating and licensing its Impact Intelligence software, a competing solution for developing physician efficiency scores. Continue reading →

SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A California federal jury on Friday, April 3, 2015 awarded Cave Consulting Group, Inc. more than $12 million after determining that UnitedHealth Group’s subsidiary OptumInsight infringed Cave Consulting Group’s patent for measuring physician efficiency. The jury also rejected OptumInsight’s counterclaim that Cave Consulting Group infringed OptumInsight’s patent for processing medical claims data. Cave Consulting Group’s U.S. Patent No. 7,739,126 (the “‘126 patent”) protects its advanced approach to analyzing physician efficiency, which enables health plans, physician groups and others to obtain accurate and reliable physician efficiency scores—increasingly vital statistical measures used to combat rising healthcare costs. CCGroup’s patented physician efficiency method is considered the de facto standard for determining physician efficiency in the healthcare industry today.

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SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CCGroup is pleased to announce that it has prevailed on many of the patent infringement claims asserted against it by OptumInsight (formerly Ingenix, Inc.). OptumInsight’s claims of infringement for 6 of its 8 asserted patents, which pertained to grouping medical claims data into episode treatment groups (“ETGs”), have been dismissed by the court and cannot be reasserted. “OptumInsight has acknowledged that CCGroup has prevailed against the Symmetry ETG portfolio of patents,” stated Dr. Douglas G. Cave, President of CCGroup. Two OptumInsight patents, which expire next year, remain in suit. For the same reasons OptumInsight has dismissed a majority of its patent claims, CCGroup is confident that it will prevail on OptumInsight’s remaining claims asserted against the Cave Grouper™.

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U.S. Patents Issued to Protect Cave Consulting Group’s (“CCGroup”) Physician Efficiency Measurement Using Episodes-of-Care and a Predefined Set of Medical Conditions 

San Mateo, CA. – CCGroup is pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a fourth patent to CCGroup, protecting its physician efficiency methodology and system. The four (4) patents are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,739,126; 8,301,464; 8,340,981; and 8,639,528, the most recently issued. Other patent applications are awaiting approval. Continue reading →