American Health Holding, Inc. Acquires HCX, Inc.'s Group Health Utilization Review Business.

WESTERVILLE, Ohio--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 22, 1999--American Health Holding, Inc. ("AHH"), a national medical management firm, announced today that it has acquired the group health Utilization Review and Case Management business from HCX, Inc. ("HCX").

American Health Holding, Inc., (http://americanhealthholding.com) a rapidly growing leader in the medical cost management field, is URAC accredited, and provides Utilization Review, Case Management, 24-Hour Nurse Counseling and Claims Reduction services to 1,000s of employer groups. American Health's distinctive market place niche is the delivery of medical management on the client's site.

Included in the scope of On-Site contracts are: URAC Accreditation, licensure in required states, user friendly software, automatic system upgrades, Total Quality Management, access to medical director and panel of physician specialists. Additionally, American Health is developing managed care products for Medicare.

"Our clients are driving us to develop medical management products aimed at risk barring entities. We are prepared to meet the growing trend of providers assuming risk in both commercial and Medicare markets," says American Health Chairman, Dr. Ivan Gilbert. "The acquisition of HCX's Group Health medical management business is in line with our corporate growth strategy," confirms Michael Reidelbach, President of American Health Holding, Inc.

HCX, Inc. (http://www.HCXinc.com) specializes in evidence-based criteria for health care management, and is a long time leader in medical management for workers' compensation. The Company's services include Early Intervention, Physical Medicine Review, Review for Diagnostic Testing and Outpatient Procedures, and a complete line of hospital bill audit services.

HCX has received URAC accreditation for both Health and Workers' Compensation.

According to Don Hernley, President of HCX, "The sale of the traditional Group Health UR business to AHH is one more step in our goal to concentrate on our core competence - workers' compensation. We will, however, continue to provide our Outpatient Physical Medicine Review Services for both Workers' Compensation and Group Health clients."

HCX has recently released its latest tool for Workers' Compensation: Early Intervention (EI), an Internet-based program for First Report of Injury, Case Triage, and 3-Point Contact. An integral component of the computerized triage process (based on responses to scripted interview questions) is a screen for psychosocial risk factors indicating an increased risk for a case to become chronic.

EI is also a work flow manager, routing the case to the appropriate person for review and scheduling all follow-ups.

In addition to the acquisition, both companies are excited about this as the beginning of an on-going relationship. The acquisition agreement includes an arrangement whereby AHH will direct workers' compensation clients to HCX, and HCX will refer group health business to AHH.

AHH is located in Westerville, OH, with offices in Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Little Rock, Ark., Houston, and Carthage, Mo. HCX has Management Offices in Washington, DC, with Operations Centers in Phoenix, and Naperville, Ill.