Allianz Life Forms Marketing Pact With the Nation's Largest PPO.

Business Editors

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2002

Allianz Life partners with Beech Street to offer 16 million members

access to its LifeTrac Transplant Network; Also announces agreement

with BioScrip, a ScripSolutions Company

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life), announced today that its healthcare reinsurance unit, Allianz Healthcare Re, has formed agreements with Beech Street Corporation, the nation's largest independently owned Preferred Provider Organization and ScripSolutions, a leading pharmaceutical healthcare organization.

Under the agreement with Beech Street, Allianz Life will offer more than 700 Beech Street clients and their 16 million members full access to the LifeTrac(SM) organ and bone marrow transplant network. The LifeTrac Network is the only network of its kind to be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Allianz Life is one of the leading health reinsurers in the United States.

"This precedent setting agreement offers Beech Street members access to proven transplant programs at predictable and controlled costs. They have access to 39 leading, nationally recognized medical centers," said Tom Sass, vice president of Allianz Healthcare Re. "As employers seek to manage their high medical and prescription drug costs, because of the financial impact it has on their overall success, Allianz Healthcare Re continues to provide progressive solutions. A relationship of this magnitude will help to ensure an extremely effective system for transplant patients, their families, and physicians."

LifeTrac is a national network of 39 medical centers and more than 190 organ and bone marrow programs. Among the centers are the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Md.; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; Memorial Sloan-Ketterling Cancer Center, New York, N.Y.; and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Mo. The network processes more than 2500 transplant cases annually for insurance companies, HMOs, and self funded health plans. In addition to being the first organ and bone marrow transplant network to achieve accreditation from JCAHO in the United States, LifeTrac was the sole transplant network to gain reaccredidation in 2001, which will be valid for a period of three years. Based in Lake Forest, California, Beech Street offers an extensive network of 3300 hospitals, 50,000 ancillaries, and 345,000 providers.

In addition to the partnership with Beech Street, Allianz Life has formed an agreement with ScripSolutions's BioScrip division. This leading pharmaceutical healthcare organization will offer specialty pharmaceutical distribution, pharmacy management services, and compliance monitoring programs targeted at high cost injectable and infusion therapies that service the chronically ill and genetically impaired. Allianz Life brings size, breadth of network, and increased distribution to BioScrip. In return, BioScrip will provide extensive injectable and infusion therapiesy programs at significantly lower costs. ScripSolutions has more than eight years experience in managing pharmacy costs and coordination of therapy protocols.

"This is an exciting time to be at Allianz Life," said Dave Sipprell, senior vice president of healthcare reinsurance for Allianz Life. "Our healthcare reinsurance business is growing rapidly through product innovation and strategic alliances. In this era of keen competition, the alliances with Beech Street and BioScrip bring critically important benefits to our clients."

About Allianz Healthcare Re

Allianz Healthcare Re, a division of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, primarily provides reinsurance for catastrophic medical claims to HMOs, provider organizations, and employers who self-fund their employee benefit plans. HMO Re and Provider Excess services are distributed directly to HMOs and provider organizations and through preferred broker relationships. Stop-Loss coverage is distributed to employer groups through HMO clients, third party administrators and regional and national brokers.

About Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life) is a leading provider of fixed and variable annuities and life policies, group life and health, and long-term care products through independent distribution networks and financial institutions in the U.S. Allianz Life is also a major provider of life, annuity and health reinsurance services. Allianz Life is part of the Allianz Group, the largest insurance group and the 18th largest corporation in the world, operating in more than 70 countries. Allianz Life headquarters are based in Minneapolis.