Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts gets interactive with their members; Health Navigator the 24-hour health care "ATM" is first in nation.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 1995--Blue Cross and Blue Shield of MA (BCBSMA) is leading the industry by introducing an "ATM" for the health care marketplace.

These highly-interactive, multimedia, touch screen kiosks are designed to provide consumers and BCBSMA members with 24-hour access to health and wellness information. The Health Navigator kiosk is transportable and includes features that provide a variety of essential health care information, ranging from primary care physician (PCP) directories, prescription and over-the-counter drug information, wellness surveys and a library of articles on health and wellness related topics.

"Health Navigator reflects our growing confidence in technology to meet the needs of our customers," said Blue Cross and Blue Shield's President William C. VanFaasen. "We are entering a new era for health care and health care technology. This system will lower our administrative costs and provide critical health information for our consumers when and where they need it."

Health Navigator is a virtual reality customer service center in a kiosk which uses attractive graphics, high-quality digital video, sound and animation to communicate with the consumer. An interactive video host guides the user through the available options and the user requests information using a touch-screen monitor. The kiosk provides laser quality print-outs as well as a phone handset for direct access to BCBSMA customer service representatives.

Health Navigator leverages the health information highway technologies that BCBSMA already has in place, connecting health care providers and the business communities to BCBSMA's mainframes. Current BCBSMA members can easily obtain a print-out of their member profile and can even change their primary care physician by selecting the "Members Only" function and "swiping" a member ID card.

Russell J. Ricci, MD, president of the New Health Ventures Division, said, "This kiosk is part of our long-term investment strategy to develop technology that will help empower our customers and allow them to take a more active role in their health care needs. Realizing the inherent risks associated with new technologies such as the ones we are embracing, our Consumer Technology Group has done an excellent job in balancing the possible with the practical."

Several strategic partners worked with Blue Cross to develop the Health Navigator kiosk. Multimedia Resources, Inc. (MRI) of Portland, Ore., designed the system and developed the touch-screen software; McGraw-Hill Healthcare Publications of Minneapolis, Minn., worked with BCBSMA to supply hundreds of health and wellness articles; Wellsource Inc. of Clackamas, Or., provided the cardiovascular risk and stress assessment surveys; and The US Pharmcopeial of Rockville, Md., supplied easy to understand prescription and over-the-counter drug information.

For all consumers, members and non-members, the kiosk offers access to a wide variety of important information. Utilizing multimedia technologies the following functionality is incorporated into the kiosk:

 o  Health Plan Options - descriptions of available BCBSMA health
    plans.

 o  Special Programs - information about BCBSMA programs, such
    as: safety helmet discounts, health fitness network, Caring Program
    for Children, preventative time lines for adults and children,
    fitness and eyewear networks, Living Healthy Books and the Living
    Healthy Magazine.

 o  Primary Care Physician (PCP) Directories - allows users to
    browse through BCBSMA physician directories using state and
    regional maps, ultimately providing the user with an up-to-date
    list of available and appropriate PCP's located near their homes
    or work places.

 o  About Managed Care - incorporates animation and sound to
    answer commonly-asked questions, such as: What is a referral?; What
    is a PCP?; What do you do when you need emergency care?

 o  More About Blue Cross and Blue Shield - brings the people at
    BCBSMA to life through full-motion videos that highlight the unique
    aspects that set BCBSMA apart from its competition.

 o  The Health Library - articles about disease and illnesses,
    exercise and nutrition, lifestyle and family issues,
    prescription drugs and over-the-counter medication.

 o  Speak With A Customer Service Representative - through a
    telephone handset, users are connected directly to a customer
    service representative if they are in need of additional
    information or assistance.

 o  Risk Assessment Surveys - two interactive health assessment
    surveys, covering cardiovascular risk and stress are available
    to the user, resulting in a customized print-out.

Jeff Dowell, MRI's vice president sales and marketing, says that "Working with BCBSMA has been very satisfying and exciting. BCBSMA had a clear understanding of kiosk technology, how they wanted to use it, and how it would tie-in with their long range strategic and technology goals." He went on to say, "More and more, we're being approached by companies that want to use multimedia kiosks to help meet some type of informational or operational need. It's a pleasant surprise when they are as far along and well implemented as BCBSMA is."

The software application is based on the MS-DOS/Windows operating system, with AimTech's Icon Author used in conjunction with Microsoft OLE, Visual Basic and C++, as well as Adobe Acrobat.

The kiosk hardware utilizes an IBM model PC-350, DX-4 100 Mhz processor, 32 Mb RAM, 1 Gig hard drive, 17" high resolution touch screen monitor, 28.8 baud data/fax modem, 16-bit digital audio card with wave table MIDI synthesizer, external stereo speakers, double speed CD-ROM drive, and an MPEG-1 digital video decoder capable of playing full-motion video segments.

The first kiosk will be located outside the BCBSMA Health Information Service Center at 100 Summer Street, Boston and at the BCBSMA Health Center in Braintree. Two premier BCBSMA accounts, the City of Boston at City Hall and the Wyman Gordon Company, in Worcester have been invited to participate in the kiosk pilot.

The first 60 days will be used to study and track usage, conduct consumer focus groups, and to gather user suggestions to incorporate into phase II functionality.

"The specifications for Health Navigator were based on research conducted in 1994 using kiosk prototypes located at our three Health Information Service Centers," explained Mary Reis Mikelk, manager of BCBSMA's Consumer Technology Group. "What really excited us, was the business community's reaction to the technology. They saw it as a natural addition to their human resource/benefit management office, providing consistent communications to their employees, as well as allowing around-the-clock access to critical health and wellness information. This is only phase I of the project, and as this technology continues to evolve we believe that we will truly make a difference to our members."

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts is the region's largest health services company, providing a full range of managed care and traditional benefits, products and services to businesses and individual customers, to health care providers and to federal, state, and local governments.

CONTACT: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Ethel Shepard, 617/832-4826