Access Health Announces Million Member Contract With Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida.

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 1996--Access Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACCS) has announced an agreement to provide Personal Health Advisor(R) to one million members of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida over the next 15 months, announced Thomas E. Gardner, chief executive officer of Access Health.

Personal Health Advisor is a membership-based personal health management service that provides consumers with immediate access to a broad range of health information and counseling services. Members can receive information 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the telephone, the Internet, fax, printed materials or cable TV. Registered nurse counselors are available anytime of the day or night to answer questions and provide other health-related assistance as necessary.

Members also can listen to any of more than 450 pre-recorded health information tapes through PHA's AudioHealth Library(R) and have the ability to place orders for health-related literature. Currently, more than 10 million people nationwide are members of Personal Health Advisor.

Under the terms of the agreement, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida and Health Options, Inc., the company's HMO, will initially offer Personal Health Advisor to 220,000 Medicare supplement customers and 155,000 of its commercial managed care customers in Florida's northeast region as of Oct. 1, 1996.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida intends to expand the availability of Personal Health Advisor statewide throughout 1997. The company expects all of its one million group members to have access to Personal Health Advisor by December 1997.

"We are very pleased to be entering this partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida," Gardner said. "By providing immediate, around the clock access to health information and counseling through Personal Health Advisor, we are able to help our members make more informed health care decisions. Personal Health Advisor really empowers people to take more responsibility for their own health and well-being."

Larry Tremonti, M.D., vice president of quality and care management at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, added that the alliance between the two companies will result in better quality of care for customers.

"We believe that Personal Health Advisor adds another customer benefit to our quality health care programs," Dr. Tremonti said. "It allows Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida to partner with our customers so that they can learn more about their health. Personal Health Advisor is a customer-focused, education-oriented tool that complements and supports physicians in the delivery of care."

Access Health is the leading provider of membership-based personal health management services designed to help health plans, HMOs, self-insured employers and hospital-based delivery systems improve the quality of care, reduce costs and improve member satisfaction.

Access Health is headquartered at 11020 White Rock Road, Rancho Cordova, Calif., 95670. The phone number is 916/851-4000, the fax number is 916/852-3890 and the World Wide Web address is http://www.access-health.com. -0-

Note to Editors: The statements contained in this release, including those relating to the timing and number of members which will result from this contract, are forward-looking statements and therefore are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ and such differences may be material. These statements involve risks and uncertainties detailed in the Company's 10K/A filed for fiscal year 1995, and the reports filed on form 10-Q for the first, second and third quarters of fiscal year 1996.

CONTACT: Access Health

Jan Emerson, 916/864-4784

or

White & Co.

Molly Prescott, 415/274-8127