Care Solutions Addresses Rising Pharmaceutical Costs by Fully Integrating Pharmacy "PPO" Network.

Business Editors

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 5, 2000

Care Solutions, a leading provider of bill review services for workers' compensation medical claims, announced it is now providing all payers of workers' compensation medical insurance with fully integrated access to a discounted network of pharmacies.

To make this possible, Care Solutions has partnered with EBC Administrators, a national workers' compensation pharmacy network that consists of more than 55,000 participating pharmacies, including all major pharmacy chains. The network operates on a common data file that includes specially discounted pricing for more than 106,000 prescription drugs.

"EBC has created a truly national network of pharmacies that have agreed to discounted, contracted pricing for all prescriptions related to workers' compensation medical claims," said Scott Green, president of Care Solutions. "By integrating access to this network with our existing bill review services, we will be able to generate a cost savings to our clients of up to 43 percent off the Average Wholesale Price (AWP). These savings are significantly below the existing fee schedules, including those schedules dictated by various state guidelines for workers' compensation medical care."

Care Solutions pursued the strategic initiative in reaction to the soaring drug costs for payers of workers' compensation coverage.

According to the Health Insurance Association of America, from 1995 to 1999 overall medical costs rose by approximately five percent. In that same five-year span, however, prescription drug costs rose by 14 percent, or nearly three times as fast. The cost of pharmaceutical benefits relative to total health care expenses has nearly doubled in the past decade from less than 9% in 1990 to over 15% currently.

"We needed to act in a swift and decisive way to help our clients combat the problem of rising pharmaceutical costs," said Green. "This partnership with EBC will help our clients achieve the greatest possible bill review savings allowable by law."

Founded in 1998, Care Solutions provides traditional mail-in bill review services, while its sister company, StrataCare provides Internet-enabled Windows-based bill review software licensing to the workers' compensation payer community. Care Solutions has quickly become one of the most respected companies in the workers' compensation bill review industry, servicing clients such as Republic Indemnity Insurance, Berkshire Hathaway Insurance and Southern California Gas Company. From its headquarters and data center in Newport Beach, Calif., Care Solutions processes in excess of 40,000 workers' compensation medical bills per month. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.caresolutions.net, or call the company at 800/277-6512.