All Payer, One Stop Bill Submission Solution for Workers' Compensation Announced.

Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers

SOUTHINGTON, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 1, 2002

Health Management Online, Inc., (HMonline) announced today an expansion of their workers' compensation bill and clinical note enablement services that benefits providers and payers alike.

HMonline provides services to bridge the disparate technologies separating providers, payers and bill review companies with an express digital conduit for electronic workers' compensation bills. These services allow bills to be uploaded, edited and forwarded directly to bill review or adjusters within minutes of receipt from providers. Because workers' compensation bills need supporting clinical documentation, HMonline's system includes proprietary technology enabling medical notes to be faxed back (or sent over the Internet). Notes are scanned automatically, cross-indexed to the bill and then delivered to medical case managers' desktops immediately. Delivery of this information in a timely way is essential for the success of early return to work programs.

HMonline introduced this service earlier this year with providers in Connecticut and Maine.

Now, based on the success and growth of market demand, HMonline is expanding service by taking all bills for all payers directly from providers. This is a radical step forward that has obvious appeal. The appeal is enhanced when providers learn they have nothing to buy and can keep all their current systems, and save time and money. They can simply hand off all their workers' compensation bill submission problem to HMonline who will manage the entire process from that point forward.

In announcing the opening of the new fulfillment center in Connecticut, HMonline's President, Bill Chesley said, "Our providers have asked us to solve the entire problem of delivering all their workers' compensation bills and clinical notes regardless of payer. When they realized how easy it was for us to solve the workers' compensation problem for some of their payers they asked for more, and that makes sense. The problem is complicated for them because every payer has different needs and it has been less painful in the past to simply print bills, mail them and then wait hopefully. We solve this problem because we take all the bills, paper and digital - doesn't matter - scrub them through our edit filters and deliver them at warp speed to the payer - in whatever format they expect."

By taking all the bills, HMonline is now scanning paper bills using optical character recognition (OCR) technologies to convert text on paper into searchable digital information. Bills transformed to digital formats can then be edited and prompts automated back to providers for medical notes. These notes are sent back online or by fax, are automatically cross-indexed to the appropriate bill and delivered appropriately to the desktops of adjusters, case managers and attorneys who work with the claim at the payer side.

HMonline reduces time delay for bills to be submitted and reimbursed because it eliminates the postal, mailroom bottlenecks and distribution time delays. Every bill managed by HMonline costs less for a provider than the print to paper and mail current option.

The solution is clever because it is simple and uses technologies already in place in the providers office. There is no need to re-invest in new systems, software or technologies.

Health Management Online (HMonline(R)) is an ASP provider of specialty productivity services to the Property & Casualty Insurance industry and is focused on workers' compensation. Based in Southington, Connecticut it is located in the heart of the insurance industry. HMonline is backed by private investors with Next Generation Ventures the lead investor.