Cardium Health Expands Market Focus to Offer Customized Solutions for Taft-Hartley and Multiple Employer Plan Sponsors.

FARMINGTON, Conn. -- Taft-Hartley and multiple employer plan sponsors are being challenged to reduce rising healthcare costs while at the same time offer meaningful healthcare benefits to their members. It is a delicate balance that requires an understanding of both the financial costs of healthcare services as well as the intensely personal nature of what it means to be healthy and need care.

To help Taft-Hartley and multiple employer plan sponsors balance these challenges, Cardium Health, a leading provider of disease management and health improvement programs to self-insured employers and benefit plan sponsors, is expanding its market focus to offer customized programs to this unique segment. The Company's people-centered, multi-disciplinary and integrated model for disease management and health improvement programs recognizes the unique needs of every customer organization and each individual that they work with.

"As more and more responsibility for healthcare costs and decisions are shifted to healthcare consumers, plan sponsors are considering how the changes will affect individuals at all stages of health, from healthy members to members with diagnosed chronic disease," said Dan Cave, Cardium Health CEO. "Disease management is a proven approach that works to improve the quality of care and reduce costs by addressing the clinical, psychosocial and behavioral needs of individuals with chronic conditions."

According to the Partnership for Solutions, 133 million people, almost half of all Americans, live with a chronic disease. It is projected that by 2020, as the population ages, that number is expected to increase to 157 million.1 The goal of disease management is to provide the education, support and encouragement to motivate individuals to make positive and lasting changes in their lifestyle behaviors.

Cardium Health disease management and health improvement programs for Taft-Hartley and multiple employer plan sponsors are customized to specifically address the needs of this market segment. With the focus to improve member health and reduce overall healthcare spending, the Company's program offerings are centered on the most common and costly chronic conditions including:

* Heart disease management

* Diabetes disease management

* Respiratory disease management

* Back pain management

* Tobacco cessation 

* High blood pressure / high cholesterol management

As a demonstration of its commitment to this market segment, Cardium Health is exhibiting at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) 52nd Annual Employee Benefits Conference (booth #801) in Las Vegas, from October 8 through 11.

About Cardium Health: Cardium Health is the leading provider of health improvement and disease management programs to self-insured employers and benefit plan sponsors. The Company's core focus is on reducing healthcare costs by providing medical support and educational interventions to those individuals with chronic conditions. The Company's people-centered disease management programs are based on proven clinical and economic best-practice protocols. They include such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, COPD, back pain, cancer management and tobacco cessation, and easily integrate into employers' back-to-work and wellness initiatives. For more information about Cardium Health and its programs, please visit www.cardiumhealth.com.

1 Partnership for Solutions, Chronic Conditions: Making the Case for Ongoing Care, September 2004 update