BJC HealthCare and UnitedHealthcare Partner to Streamline Administrative Processes and Lower Health Costs.

ST. LOUIS -- In an effort to address escalating health care costs, BJC HealthCare and UnitedHealthcare have launched a program to jointly streamline administrative processes to help lower health care costs for their patients.

Drawing on a methodology called Six Sigma, used by manufacturing and other industries for eliminating procedural deficiencies, BJC HealthCare and UnitedHealthcare established a project team to identify areas for billing and payment process enhancements. The team is using Barnes-Jewish Hospital as the pilot site, examining every step of the health care process - from physician services to claims processing - to remove inefficiencies and associated costs.

"We are very pleased to be working with UnitedHealthcare on this initiative and are encouraged by the early results we are seeing," said Steve Lipstein, president and CEO of BJC HealthCare. "For our patients, improving administrative processes will help reduce costs and improve their total health care experience, which is our primary focus."

Using Six Sigma practices as a model, the project team has developed a scorecard to monitor progress and ensure proper implementation of the team's recommended solutions. After nine months of work, the project team's first phase was completed in the fall of 2006. BJC plans to implement the team's recommendations at all 13 of its hospitals.

"UnitedHealthcare is committed to making the health care system work better for consumers; our initiative with BJC HealthCare is an extension of that commitment," added Steve Walli, president and CEO of UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest. "Further, UnitedHealthcare has achieved dramatic improvements in electronic claims submissions and approval rates during the past several years, leading the industry with 82 percent of claims processed without manual intervention."

About BJC HealthCare

BJC HealthCare (www.bjc.org) is one of the largest nonprofit healthcare organizations in the United States, delivering services to residents primarily in the greater St. Louis, southern Illinois and mid-Missouri regions BJC serves urban, suburban and rural communities and includes 13 hospitals and multiple community health locations. Services include inpatient and outpatient care, primary care, community health and wellness, workplace health, home health, community mental health, rehabilitation, long-term care and hospice.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare (www.unitedhealthcare.com) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services, helping more than 25 million individual consumers nationwide achieve improved health and well-being through various health service systems. UnitedHealthcare arranges access to quality, affordable care with more than 500,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,600 hospitals across America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), a diversified Fortune50 health and well-being company.