Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nevada makes announcement.

RENO, Nev.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 1996--Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nevada announced today that it will become the first health plan in the region to offer Healtheon's Internet-based benefits enrollment and information system to employers and members.

The Healtheon service gives customers electronic tools to better manage their health care and benefits needs - online and available 24 hours a day.

"It is our goal to add value in the services we offer our customers," said Blair Christensen, regional vice president of BCBSNV. "We are committed to providing the best technology and services available to empower our customers to make better decisions about their benefit plans and health care.

"We believe integrating Healtheon's online program will significantly enhance our service to our customers by giving them more direct control over their health care," Christensen said.

"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nevada will be on the forefront of providing its customers advanced health management services," said Jim Clark, founder and chairman of Healtheon. "We view this agreement as the beginning of a strong relationship enabling us to partner with BCBSNV to deliver useful services to their customers today and into the future."

Healtheon's online health and benefits information services streamline the benefits management process by making information more accessible in an easy-to-use graphical format. Employees and group benefit managers with access to the Internet can find information about benefits coverage and services, and manage benefits online, at their desktops or from their home computers.

The services automate enrollment and management of members in health plans; display summary descriptions and graphical, cafeteria-style selections that make it easy for members to evaluate and enroll in specific health and benefit plans; and to evaluate costs and payment options.

For example, right now a BCBSNV customer who wants to add a dependent to a health benefit plan must fill out a paper form and submit that form to his or her human resources department which, in turn, sends it to BCBSNV. After a few days the employee receives confirmation of the change. With the Healtheon service, the employee can log on to a desktop computer, enter a secure password, and add the dependent to their health benefits plan with immediate confirmation.

Both BCBSNV and Healtheon are committed to security of the information. Healtheon has adopted proven methodologies, along with state-of-the-art industrial strength security technology so that all participants can be confident of the privacy and integrity of information gathered and exchanged.

BCBSNV provides healthcare benefits to 44,000 members throughout the state. The company is strategically investing in healthcare technology to give information to customers and providers that will help them make better decisions about their healthcare needs.

Healtheon is the premier supplier of Internet-based online healthcare information and services. The Palo Alto-based company is dedicated to harnessing the Internet and other leading-edge technologies to provide industry-specific business solutions.

Healtheon was founded in 1996 by Jim Clark, founder and chairman of Silicon Graphics and Netscape Communications, David Schnell, M.D., founding president and chief executive officer, and Pavan Nigam, vice president of engineering. -0-

Note: The web site for Healtheon Corp. is

http://www.healtheon.com