American Healthways, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska Join Forces.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

NASHVILLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 19, 2003

American Healthways

Five-year, Comprehensive Disease Management Contract Offers Solutions

for Self-Insured Customers Facing Rising Health-Care Costs, Premiums

American Healthways (Nasdaq/NM: AMHC), the nation's leading provider of comprehensive disease management and care enhancement services, today announced an agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska to expand disease management and care enhancement services to its self-insured employer groups.

"By partnering with American Healthways, we are providing our self-insured customers with access to the best disease management programs available, programs that are helping employers across the country improve the health and productivity of their employees and, ultimately, reduce costs." said Tim Ranney, M.D., senior vice president and medical director for Blue Cross and Blue and Shield of Nebraska. "Disease management is proving to be an extremely strategic and effective way for employers to maintain valuable health care benefits for employees without compromising profits, and we're pleased to be able to offer the very best disease management programs to our customers."

To meet the increasing customer demand for disease management services, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska contracted with American Healthways for its comprehensive suite of programs, including diabetes, cardiac, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and 11 impact conditions.

"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska clearly cares about the lives it touches every single day and has joined forces with American Healthways to prove that better health leads to lower costs," said Ben R. Leedle, president and chief operating officer of American Healthways. "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska understands that employers now view disease management as an integral part of their health plan coverage and that they expect results. American Healthways produces those results, both clinical and financial, and we do so by taking the time to make the kinds of human connections so necessary to achieve long-term behavior changes among people with chronic illnesses."

AMHC programs are designed to help people living with chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and asthma lead healthier lives and avoid costly trips to the emergency room or hospital. Highly skilled nurses and clinicians at call centers throughout the country reach out to members to help educate and motivate them to become better self-managers of their diseases. In the process, AMHC works to enhance the patient-physician relationship by coordinating the care of its members and bridging the well-documented gaps in the health-care system.

In the eight months since American Healthways began offering its programs to the self-insured market through their health plan of choice, 43 employer groups across the country have signed on, bringing disease management and care enhancement services to more than 110,000 people. American Healthways helps clients realize as much as 20 percent savings in the first year and has helped clients realize over $750 million in health care savings over the last seven years.

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, provides health care coverage or benefit administration to more than 640,000 people. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska is a not-for-profit mutual insurance company. For more information visit www.bcbsne.com.

About American Healthways

American Healthways (AMHC) is the nation's leading and largest provider of specialized, comprehensive disease management and care enhancement services to health plans, physicians, medical management organizations and hospitals. The Company's programs have been reviewed and approved for clinical excellence by Johns Hopkins and have been certified or accredited by the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA), the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), and the American Accreditation Healthcare Commission (URAC). American Healthways has contracts to provide disease and care management programs to 770,000 equivalent lives in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. The Company also operates diabetes management programs in hospitals nationwide. For more information visit www.americanhealthways.com.