American Specialty Health Officer Elected to URAC Board of Directors.

SAN DIEGO -- American Specialty Health (ASH) announced that its Chief Health Services Officer, Douglas Metz, DC, has been elected to the URAC Board of Directors. Dr. Metz has served on the URAC Health Standards Committee since 1999 and is currently the committee's Chairman.

Dr. Metz joined ASH in 1994 and has been instrumental in the development of the ASH quality management systems. He has a commitment to the promotion of quality management systems and the third-party validation of systems quality compliance as a key to the improvement of the delivery of complementary and traditional health care services in America. With Dr. Metz' leadership, ASH became one of the first complementary health care services organizations to receive URAC accreditation and is now also a delegated vendor to more than 50 health plans.

In addition to serving on the URAC Board, Dr. Metz serves as the Chairman of the Accreditation Committee for the National Association of Specialty Health Organizations.

ASH is URAC-accredited for its health plan, health utilization management, networks and credentialing, workers' compensation, health Web site, HIPAA privacy, HIPAA security, and claims operations. ASH has successfully achieved re-accreditation every two years since it first received accreditation in 1998.

"American Specialty Health has been successful in integrating complementary health care into the mainstream health care delivery system, in part, by achieving URAC accreditations," said George DeVries, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of ASH. "Dr. Metz' contributions to ASH--and the health care industry--cannot be overstated."

"Dr. Metz is an indispensable addition to the URAC Board of Directors," said Garry Carneal, president and CEO of URAC. "Among other benefits, he brings to URAC a wealth of clinical and business experience relating to specialty care that will help URAC optimize its quality improvement activities going forward."

URAC, an independent, nonprofit organization, is well-known as a leader in promoting health care quality through its accreditation and certification programs. URAC offers a wide range of quality benchmarking programs and services that keep pace with the rapid changes in the health care system, and provide a symbol of excellence for organizations to validate their commitment to quality and accountability. For more information, visit www.urac.org

ASH and its subsidiaries are the nation's leading specialty benefits organization for complementary health care--providing benefit, health education, and affinity network programs to health plans, insurance carriers, employer groups, and trust funds nationwide. Based in San Diego, ASH has more than 500 employees and more than 9 million members in benefit programs nationwide. For more information about ASH and its subsidiaries, visit their Web site at www.ashcompanies.com.