Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia's New Initiative Provides Information Technology Equipment to 4,600 Georgia Physicians.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 2004

Tech Partners include Microsoft, Dell, and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBSGA) announced a network-wide technology initiative to help physicians better serve their patients, achieve greater efficiencies, and reduce costs. This initiative provides approximately 4,600 physicians who contract with BCBSGA with new technologies designed to enhance patient care, reduce administrative costs and improve physician communications with patients and pharmacists.

Free of charge, selected physicians will have their choice of either:

-- Prescription Improvement Package: A hand-held electronic

prescribing unit with Microsoft supplied software, which will

allow physicians to generate electronic prescriptions.

-- Includes a wireless handheld PDA, a wireless access point

and a one-year subscription to an e-prescribing service.

-- Physicians will presently be able to use this system to

easily write many prescriptions and have them

automatically faxed. (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of

Georgia has in the past and presently supports legislative

language to provide for e-mail prescribing in the 2004

General Assembly.)

-- With this package, physicians can improve the quality of

care and safety for all of their patients independent of

the patients' health plan relationship.

-- Paperwork Reduction Package: A fully loaded professional grade

Dell computer and Dell printer to facilitate on-line

communication, including paperless submission of claims.

-- This is targeted toward physicians who are not making full

use of information technology or the Internet on a daily

basis.

-- The system will provide the basic infrastructure for

on-line communication, including paperless submission of

claims, speed and improve communication on member

eligibility and claims administration.

-- Doctors will also be able to access BCBSGA Provider Access

websites (or any other health plan website) where they or

their staff can check member eligibility, claim status and

medical policies.

"The goal of this program is to provide our key physician partners with a technology solution that will improve patient service and electronic connectivity, and reduce administrative cost," said John Watts, President and chief executive officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia. "Physicians can choose the technology package that will best meet the needs of their practice."

"The package will be made available at no charge to those network physicians with whom we have the most concentrated relationship defined by the number of office visits of our members," Watts added.

Studies by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report that more than 7,000 deaths and up to seven percent of hospital admissions are caused each year from adverse drug effects. Additionally, the IOM also reported that up to 95 percent of adverse drug events could be avoided through computerized physician order entry (CPOE).

Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) has the capability to issue prompts that warn against the possibility of drug interaction, allergy or overdose, provide accurate, current information that helps physicians keep up with new drugs as they are introduced into the market, provide drug-specific information that eliminates confusion among drug names that sound alike, improve communication between physicians and pharmacists and reduce health care costs due to improved efficiencies.

"CPOE helps to resolve the prescription conflicts while the patient is still with the doctor and increases patient safety by helping to avoid errors," said Louise Short, MD, BCBSGA's chief medical officer. "CPOE can also make the physician's office more efficient by decreasing prescription-related calls. And most importantly, all of the physician's patients will benefit from this program - not just those under our plans," added Dr. Short.

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended that key industry participants work together to redesign processes focused on evidence-based decision-making, safety as a system priority and cooperation among clinicians. "Computerized physician order entry provides a clean prescription to the pharmacy addressing any issues of formulary, pre-authorization, or safety," noted Dr. Short.

"Our goal is to enhance the technological capabilities of providers and offer a mobility solution through CPOE and eCommerce with a package that can be easily adopted by the medical community and integrated with our current IT efforts," said Watts.

Through its parent company, WellPoint Health Networks, BCBSGA has partnered with industry leaders Dell, Microsoft, and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGE&Y) to deliver a mobility solution to these Georgia physicians. The hardware will be provided by Dell Computers and Microsoft will provide the software, which is being integrated by CGE&Y. Delivery, installation and training will be provided free of charge to the eligible physicians. Through these technical partners, all other BCBSGA network physicians in good standing can receive a substantial discount on all of the same equipment choices.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia serves more than 2.3 million medical members and is the oldest and largest health benefits company in Georgia. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia is an operating subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., one of the nation's largest publicly traded health care companies serving the health care needs of more than 14 million medical members and more than 50 million specialty members nationally. WellPoint offers a broad spectrum of quality network-based health products including open access PPO, POS and hybrid products, HMO and specialty products. Specialty products include pharmacy benefit management, dental, utilization management, vision, mental health, life and disability insurance, long term care insurance, flexible spending accounts, COBRA administration, and Medicare supplements. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia may be found on the web at www.bcbsga.com. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.