According to Zurich North America, When It Comes to Organ Transplants, the Nurse Case Manager May be More Important to Your Employees Than Their Surgeon.

Business Editors

(Why just covering the costs for transplants is no longer enough...)

Transplant patients are faced with critical choices that primary care physicians don't always have sufficient time to answer and health plan administrators are often not equipped to handle.

This frequently leaves employees -- and human resource departments -- on their own to explore their options, say experts from Special Risk International (SRI) and Zurich North America. Assigning trained nurse care managers to transplant patients -- from diagnosis to post-op treatment -- can help to increase quality of care for employees and curb costs to employers.

Stephen Mueller, vice president for the Accident & Health group of Zurich North America and Tim Koch, president of SRI can discuss:

- How health plan administrators usually are not equipped to handle the needs of transplant patients -- and how nurse case managers can help prevent misinformation from confusing emotionally distraught patients

- The post-procedure costs that are frequently overlooked by both health plan administrators and patients alike - and how companies can manage these costs

- How an insurance program can effectively handle the financial and administrative burdens normally associated with transplant procedures.

Special Risk International (SRI), headquartered in Baltimore, MD, is a leading provider of risk-based critical care management, special health risk management, and insurance services, providing programs to insurers, managed care organizations, provider organizations, employers and government program plan sponsors nationwide.

Zurich North America (www.zurichna.com) is a leading commercial property-casualty insurance provider serving the multinational, middle market and small business sectors in the United States and Canada. Headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., Zurich North America has 11,650 employees and wrote $10.9 billion in premiums in 2001. Zurich North America includes the Zurich U.S. business units (Corporate Customer, Middle Markets, Small Business, Strategic Partnerships, Construction, Specialties, Zurich Global Energy, Surety & Financial Enterprises and Empire Fire and Marine), as well as Universal Underwriters Group and Zurich North America Canada. The Zurich U.S. pool of companies is rated A+ (superior) by A.M. Best and AA- (very strong) by Standard & Poor's. Zurich North America is a member of the Zurich Financial Services Group.