Blue Cross of California Pays Out $56.9 Million in Physician Bonus Incentives; Program's Second Year Payouts Double over Previous Year.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Blue Cross of California (Blue Cross) today announced its HMO Quality Scorecard award recipients for calendar year 2003. Throughout the state this week, 134 participating physician groups were paid an incentive amount totaling $56.9 million using the Blue Cross' Quality Scorecard and other applicable contract requirements, which were first implemented in July of 2001. For 2002, Blue Cross paid out $28 million in bonuses to approximately 80 groups in California. Marin Individual Practice Association located in Northern California was identified as Blue Cross' top performing physician group for their scorecard achievements in 2003. St. Jude Heritage Medical Group of Fullerton was the top performer in Southern California.

"We are very pleased to once again recognize and reward physicians on the basis of delivering high quality health care and patient service throughout the state," said Dr. Jeff Kamil, vice president and corporate medical director, Blue Cross of California. "We are seeing our members and patients benefiting from care that is quality driven and our physician partners are receiving recognition for moving the health delivery needle in this direction."

In 2001, Blue Cross implemented a new Quality Scorecard for its HMO medical groups based on feedback from physician partners and the endorsement of its external Physician Relations Committee. The evaluation process began monitoring physician groups for improving the quality of care given to HMO patients using health outcomes and patient satisfaction information from a number of clinical and service categories. The quality measures include patient satisfaction surveys, waiting times for appointments, number of complaints and grievances, peer and staff reviews and patient turnover. In addition, performance in managing chronic diseases such as asthma or hypertension and adherence to screening guidelines for breast and cervical cancer were some of the clinical measures tracked.

Joel Criste, chief executive officer of Marin Individual Practice Association, the top quality performer in Northern California, said, "Marin has long emphasized quality of care in the delivery of medicine to Blue Cross members and other patients. We sincerely appreciate the work and services our physicians and hospitals provide and join Blue Cross in sharing the emphasis and importance on measuring and rewarding quality."

"We are proud to be recognized on the basis of our outcomes and patient satisfaction," says Douglas Starr, M.D., medical director, St. Jude Heritage Medical Group. "Blue Cross has raised the bar, and we applaud their efforts to ensure the delivery of quality health care and service. This distinction reflects the values of our physicians and staff, and their unwavering commitment to provide their patients with outstanding care and service."

Blue Cross of California's revised Quality Score Card has been implemented continuously since July 2001. As contracts are renegotiated with each medical group in its HMO network, their bonuses are tied to the new criteria. Out of a total 160 medical groups contracted with Blue Cross throughout the state, more than 130 of them were eligible under the new criteria in 2003. In 2002, approximately 80 medical groups received bonuses under the new quality and satisfaction criteria.

Top 5 Performers in                 Top 5 Performers in
          No. California                       So. California
    -----------------------------     --------------------------------

    Marin IPA - Marin County          St. Jude Heritage Medical Group
                                       - Fullerton

    Physicians Medical Group          Sharp Mission Park Medical Group
     of Santa Cruz                     - Oceanside

    UC Davis Medical Group            Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group
     - Sacramento                      - San Diego

    Hill Physicians Medical Group     Bristol Park Medical Group
     - East Bay                        - Costa Mesa

    Sutter West Medical Group         Cedars-Sinai Health Associates
                                       - Beverly Hills

Blue Cross of California and its California affiliates, serving more than 7.5 million medical members, is an operating subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc. (NYSE:WLP), the nation's second largest publicly traded health care company. WellPoint serves the health care needs of more than 15.3 million medical members and approximately 46 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 of California can be found on the web at www.bluecrossca.com. Blue Cross of California is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Association.