Successful Woodland Hills-based Company Bucks Economic Trend Meridian Health Care Management, Inc. and its Clients Prosper by Helping Managed Care Provider Organizations and Payors with Technology, Administrative Services

News Release

Media Contacts: Joy Scott or Tammy Delatorre
Scott Marketing & Public Relations
(818) 610-0270

Successful Woodland Hills-based Company Bucks Economic Trend

Meridian Health Care Management, Inc. and its Clients Prosper by Helping Managed Care Provider Organizations and Payors with Technology, Administrative Services

(Woodland Hills, California -- January 28, 2002) Managed care provider organizations in California and the nation are facing tough economic times. One in four of Californias provider organizations fall short of the states financial solvency requirements, and most HMOs lost money during 2001. Their problems need solutions -- and Meridian Health Care Management and its clients are succeeding where others fail by providing these solutions: proven technology to run their businesses offered through web-based applications, and an administrative infrastructure that manages their operations efficiently.

The reason Meridian has been able to deliver the technology, administrative and management solutions provider organizations and payors need is because our company operates under the same managed care business principles as our clients," explains Michael Alper, President and CEO of Meridian. So we intrinsically understand their needs and continually strive to improve managed care business processes."

This spring, Meridian, a company with 20 years history and experience in the industry, will observe its sixth successful year in business operating under its current ownership structure. The companys business volume has grown steadily at about 20 percent per year for the past five years, from eight clients with 45,000 members to more than 20 clients with over 500,000 members. Meridian recently outgrew its office space in Woodland Hills and relocated to a new 80,000 square foot complex in January 2002.

Many factors have contributed to the financial and operational problems of managed care, including soaring medical costs that have grown faster than health plans expected, escalating pharmacy costs and increased utilization," said Alper. Managed care provider organizations and health plans need effective core processing systems coupled with administrative efficiencies, and provide groups with the intelligence they need to make sound business and financial decisions.

Technology is the key to obtaining both efficiency and actionable information for management, yet many companies lack the capital to acquire this technology, or they may spend millions of dollars to develop their own system only to find that it is immediately obsolete."

With the increase in electronic transactions, organizations should theoretically have more access to business data that would help them manage their preset budgets and disburse payments appropriately to provider members. Currently, at least a quarter of healthcare claims are now sent electronically, according to Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA). However, much of the crucial information that managed care organizations (both payor and provider) need to act -- such as cost trends, utilization abnormalities and referral patterns -- is buried under mountains of useless information.

Meridians solution is PRIMEridian, a technology system that effectively integrates vital administrative tasks -- such as eligibility verification, automated referral authorizations and claims processing -- with medical management functions, such as tracking and controlling costs, utilization management, and monitoring provider performance.

To overcome the barrier of cost, Meridian offers PRIMEridian through an ASP (application service provider) model, allowing provider organizations to access the system over the Internet without having to buy or license expensive software packages, and without having to hire costly IT professionals to install, deploy, upgrade, and maintain the system.

Meridian also leverages the power and growing popularity of the Internet to connect individual providers with payors and their contracted organizations. The number of physicians using the Internet increased from 20 percent in 1997 to 70 percent in 2000, according to the 2001 AMA Study on Physicians' Use of the World Wide Web. To take advantage of this trend, Meridian offers its widely used PRIMEridian DIRECT, an Internet-based connectivity product that allows individual provider offices to access vital managed care information and perform transactions in a highly secure, real-time environment. For instance, providers can submit referral requests and claims online, accessing updated lists of specialists in the group, or view the most current eligibility and benefit information.

Meridians technology was developed to provide the cost savings and efficiencies to their own administrative operations, which provide the invisible infrastructure" to many providers who choose to outsource these functions. As such, Meridian has served as its own laboratory for the software systems and management expertise that have improved its own internal operations and services:
·   Over the past six months, customer service telephone average speed to answer averaged less than 20 seconds. Abandonment rates continue to average less than three percent. Both of these outstanding performance statistics were maintained while the volume of calls handled by Meridian staff increased approximately 40 percent.
·   Over 60 percent of all provider referral requests are completed real-time using Meridians PRIMEridian DIRECT product which allows for immediate response to all requests and real-time online tracking of those requiring review.
·   Ninety-three percent of provider referral requests received by Meridian are processed within 48 hours. Ninety-seven percent of urgent provider referral requests are complete within 24 hours. Meridians medical management program is in compliance with all contractual, regulatory and oversight requirements (e.g., NCQA).
·   Turnaround time for claims payment averages less than seven days. Meridians claims program is in compliance with all contractual, regulatory and oversight requirements.
·   Claims quality exceeds industry standards with statistical accuracy of 98 percent and financial accuracy of 98 percent.
·   Thirty-five percent of claims are received electronically, either through Meridians web-enabled PRIMEridian DIRECT product, or via a claims clearinghouse.

Meridian offers a full spectrum of outsourcing services and management to provider organizations, health plans and hospitals, which include a complete turnkey management solution, outsourced administrative services, access to integrated information technology and consulting services. For more information about Meridian Health Care Management and its services, contact Michael Alper at Meridian Health Care Management (818-673-6203, michael.alper@mhcm.com) or visit the company at www.mhcm.com.

About Meridian Health Care Management:

Meridian Health Care Management is a nationwide provider of outsourced managed care technology and administrative services for both health care payors such as health plans and self-insured employers, and provider networks such as Independent Practice Associations (IPAs), provider sponsored organizations (PSOs), physician hospital organizations (PHOs) integrated delivery systems (IDS), and management service organizations (MSOs). Based in Woodland Hills California, and with an office in Santa Maria, CA, the company has been in business since 1982, and provides services to managed care provider organizations, hospitals, and health plans in six states for over 500,000 members.