Health Connections, Inc. Provides Nurse Triage Services For Nation's First Medicare Advantage Private Fee For Service Plan

NASHVILLE, TENN. (BW HEALTHWIRE) Nov. 28, 2000 - Health Connections, Inc. (HCI), a national medical and health information services company, announced that Olympic Health Management Systems, Inc. has selected Health Connections, Inc. to provide 24x7 Telephonic Nurse Triage services for the members of the nation's first Medicare Advantage Private Fee For Service Plan. Sterling Life Insurance Company, has been approved by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to offer the nation's first Medicare Advantage Private Fee For Service Plan (PFFS). The plan, available to most people eligible for Medicare, is part of the new Sterling family of products.

Private Fee For Service Plans were authorized under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. They were created to provide an alternative for Medicare recipients seeking flexible coverage with affordable premiums. A PFFS plan may include contracted providers or may operate without contracted providers if they are paid at or above Medicare allowable amounts. Sterling's first PFFS plan, known as Sterling Option I, was released to existing Sterling sales agencies in May of this year. The new PFFS plan became the third member of the Sterling family of products that includes Medicare Supplement and Medicare Select. Sterling officials have said they also intend to file applications for PFFS plans utilizing contracted providers. The new contracted plans will be known as Sterling Partners. Sterling is currently negotiating contracts with providers for these plans.

The Sterling concept was developed by Sterling Life Insurance Company and Olympic Health Management Services, Inc., both Aon Corporation subsidiaries. "The Simply Sterling products offer Medicare recipients a family of benefit designs and premiums from which to choose," said Debbie Ahl, Chief Operating Officer for Olympic Health Management Services, Inc. "In addition, Sterling gives Medicare beneficiaries the ability to move among the family of Sterling products as needs change."

"We were committed from day one to provide a 24x7 Telephonic Nurse Triage service to our Medicare Advantage recipients. For those of us lucky enough to be in the medical profession or to have family or friends in the profession, we know how valuable it is to have a resource available to ask health related questions anytime. Health Connections' 24x7 Telephonic Nurse Triage service provides our Medicare Advantage recipients with a reliable resource that they can turn to time and time again. We selected Health Connections to be our partner based upon their ability to provide customized services that meet the unique needs of our recipients," noted Dr. Kristin Crosby, Medical Director for Sterling Life Insurance Company.

"We are very excited to be working closely with Dr. Crosby and the team at Olympic Health Management. Health Connections will continue to remain focused on providing integrated medical and health information solutions that complement Olympic's progressive approach towards Medicare delivery," noted Carol Murdock, Chief Executive Officer of Health Connections, Inc.

Olympic Health Management Services, Inc., based in Bellingham, WA, provides a broad range of Medicare strategic planning and product development services. Its sister company, Olympic Health Management Systems, Inc., serves the administration and medical management functions of the Sterling product line. Visit Sterlingplans.com.

Sterling Life Insurance Company is a subsidiary of Combined Insurance Company of America (Combined). Both Sterling and Combined are part of Aon Corporation.

Aon Corporation is a holding company that comprises a family of brokerage, consulting and underwriting subsidiaries. Aon's common stock (Symbol AOC) is listed on the New York, Chicago and London stock exchanges.

Health Connections, Inc., based in Nashville, TN, provides clinical and non-clinical based medical and health information services as well as technology applications that integrate voice recognition and web interactions with live call center agents. HCI operates three divisions: Web Connections, Community Connections and Nurse Connections. Web Connections provides web and voice recognition technology solutions that break down the silos between web initiatives and call center initiatives and thus unify these strategies into a single "contact center" methodology designed specifically for the healthcare industry. Community Connections provides outsourced non-clinically based healthcare call center services such as Physician Referral, Class Registrations, and Marketing Program Support. Nurse Connections provides medical services such as 24x7 Nurse Triage and Customized Disease Management programs.

Visit the HCI web site at: www.healthconnections.com.

Contact:
Health Connections Inc., Nashville
Brad Kirkpatrick, 615/665-6453
or
Laura Campbell & Associates, Nashville
Laura Campbell, 615/386-9112

Olympic Press Contacts:
Debbie Ahl
Aon - Olympic Health Management Services
360-647-9080

To learn more about Sterling and our vision for the future, contact a Sterling Representative @ 1-888-858-8546 or contact us via our Contact Page.