CNA Health Partners' MSO Signs Two New Health Systems.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 25, 1999--

CNA Health Partners' MSO today announced agreements with two additional provider partners for its comprehensive administrative outsource service. Pioneer Health Plan, a provider owned insurance company which is the dominant managed care company in central Nebraska, will outsource its claims processing and information reporting to CNA beginning January 1, 2000. CNA will also supply the administration and medical management assistance for a Medicare risk product that Pioneer will introduce in mid 2000. United American Healthcare Corporation, a Detroit based managed care company with operations in two states, has also selected CNA as its administrative outsource partner for its new commercial HMO, OmniCare Health Plan, Inc., in the Memphis, Tennessee market, subject to final state approval.

Added to its administration of the second largest of the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plans (the Mail Handlers Plan) and other MSO clients, CNA's Jacksonville operations center will now be processing claims and providing medical management for over 1 1/2 million lives. The MSO services are internet-based, enabling providers, health plans and other parties to obtain secure rapid access to clinical and administrative information and to perform fully integrated transactions in real time that greatly increase operational efficiencies.

Brad Stephan, Executive Director of Pioneer Health Plan stated, "Outsourcing means more than merely `subcontracting'. It means strategically aligning my health plan's core competencies with those of our administrative partners. We made a comprehensive review of the market and chose CNA Health Partners because they were clearly superior."

Martin Ikle, Director of Sales and Marketing for OmniCare, stated that "CNA made a lot of sense to us. We can invest our time and resources on strategic, market and customer issues. In addition, their HealthScope information reporting tool is among the best we have seen and it will allow us to manage costs much more effectively."

Thomas B. Johnson, Chairman and CEO of CNA Health Partners Inc., said, "We are very excited about these new partnerships. We provide both the infrastructure and a safety net not otherwise available which can make our partners innovators in quality, cost, and allow them to successfully pursue their missions. Providers have long needed the kind of utility infrastructure we have put together on a national scale."

CNA Health Partners' MSO, a wholly owned subsidiary of the national multi-line insurer CNA, is the most comprehensive provider outsource service in the nation. It provides the integration platform, information technology, claims adjudication, medical management, risk protection and other infrastructure support necessary for provider sponsored HMO's and other provider organizations taking downstream risk. With its scale, technology, history of successful insurance plan operations and unique local model partnering approach, CNA offers a transforming solution for providers taking risk. It allows them to consolidate their infrastructure and to focus on their core competency - delivering healthcare - while remaining independent.

CNA Health Partners is assisted by an advisory board of national health care leaders, including Paul Ellwood, MD, founder of The Jackson Hole Group, Interstudy and FACCT; Mary Jane England, MD, President of the Washington Business Group on Health; Bruce Merlin Fried, Partner and Chair of the healthcare practice group at Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge; Peter Grant, Partner and Chair of the health law section of Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP; John K Inglehart, Editor of Health Affairs, a bi-monthly peer reviewed multi-disciplinary health policy journal published under the aegis of Project HOPE; Peter Kongstvedt, MD, Partner with Ernst & Young, LLP; Robert Margolis, MD, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Health Care Partner; Uwe Reinhardt, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at Princeton University, and Tom Smith, President and CEO of VHA, Inc.

CNA (NYSE: CNA) is one of the world's premier insurance organizations. With 1998 revenues of $17.1 billion, CNA ranks among the largest U.S insurance groups. Headquartered in Chicago, CNA serves individuals and businesses with a broad range of insurance products and insurance-related services.

Since 1897, CNA has built its business on a foundation of financial strength, stability and commitment to customers and business partners. Visit CNA Health Partners MSO on the World Wide Web at www.cna.com/providers/mso. CNA is a registered service mark, trade name and domain name of CNA Financial Corporation.