CareWise Inc. Appoints Izinga as Its International Distributor; Telephone Nurse Counseling Program to Expand Into Europe, Asia and Australia.

SEATTLE--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 17, 1998--CareWise Inc. (A PHYCOR Company), a leader in the health information and telephone nurse counseling industry, has named Izinga CM International as its primary international distributor.

Izinga will adapt, distribute and support the award-winning CareWise(R) program for European, Australian and Asian markets. CareWise integrates personalized health and medical information and unlimited access to telephone decision-support services.

Last month, Izinga signed contracts with ICT Concepts, a subsidiary of MOTTO Nederland BV based in Maastricht, Holland, to eventually provide services to more than 1 million people in Germany and the Benelux countries, consisting of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Currently, Izinga is translating the CareWise program into Dutch and German for this contract.

"We are privileged to work with a company with the integrity of CareWise," said Pieter Swanepoel, CEO and managing director of Izinga. "Our experience and software support capabilities mixed with the CareWise product is a recipe for successful internationalization."

Izinga's core team emerged from financial giant Sanlam, which has distributed the CareWise program throughout South Africa since last year. This program, featuring a nurse call center for health care decision-support, will continue to operate in South Africa and Namibia and serve more than 500,000 people.

"We're confident in Izinga's abilities to help us expand our programs abroad," said Craig Russell, vice president of marketing, products and sales of CareWise. "They have the clinical expertise needed to adapt the CareWise program so it reflects the cultural differences and medical protocols unique to Commonwealth and other European nations and also Asian countries."

Izinga, headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, specializes in information technology systems and support for the medical industry. For more information on Izinga, visit the company's Web site at http://www.icminternational.com.

Based in Seattle, CareWise Inc. (A PHYCOR Company) is a national provider of health care decision-support services that lower the cost of medical care while improving plan members' health and satisfaction with their health plan. Currently, CareWise Inc.'s programs serve more than 2 million people worldwide. Clients include United Airlines, the American Postal Workers' Union Health Plan, Capital District Physicians' Health Plan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana. For more information, contact CareWise Inc. at 800/927-9225 or visit the company's Web site at http://www.carewiseinc.com.