Cogent Healthcare, Inc. Announces Two Senior Executive Appointments.

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2002

Tim O'Leary appointed Vice President of Physician Services;

Richard Russell named Senior Vice President

of Information Technology and Business Planning

Cogent Healthcare, Inc., one of the nation's leading providers of inpatient management services, has recently made two key senior executive appointments. Tim O'Leary has joined the company as vice president of Physician Services and Richard Russell has been named senior vice president of Information Technology and Business Planning.

O'Leary will be responsible for developing Cogent hospitalist networks and providing management services nationwide for Cogent contracted medical groups. This role includes physician contracting, rate negotiations, network and group formation, and Cogent's physician management services.

Russell will be responsible for the company's information technology and business planning functions. In these roles, he will lead the development and implementation of Cogent's IT strategy, software applications, voice/data services, automated management reporting systems, and company-wide business planning programs.

O'Leary reports to Ron Greeno, M.D., chief medical officer and senior vice president of physician services and Russell will report to Alan Puzarne, president and chief executive officer of Cogent Healthcare, Inc.

"Tim and Rich bring a level of experience and expertise to Cogent that will enable us to continue to find and train the `best of class' physicians who deliver health care to our patients, and provide these doctors and our clients with the technology to deliver the best care possible and to measure the results of our efforts," said Alan Puzarne, CEO of Cogent Healthcare. "Their contributions will be critically important to our future growth."

Prior to joining Cogent Healthcare, O'Leary worked as a senior consultant for The Permanente Company, with responsibilities for network assessment and development, provider operations improvement, and physician contracts review. He received both his undergraduate degree and master's degree in health care administration from California State University, Long Beach.

Before coming to Cogent, Russell held a variety of healthcare senior management positions, first as a consultant with McKinsey & Company, and then in several entrepreneurial and high-growth healthcare operating companies. Russell graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering, followed by a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

Both O'Leary and Russell will be based in Cogent's Laguna Hills, California, corporate office.

About Cogent Healthcare, Inc.

Cogent Healthcare, Inc. (www.cogenthealthcare.com) is a leading provider of services that improve the well being of hospitalized patients while reducing their associated costs through the creation and management of inpatient-based physician networks. Its vision is to improve care and efficiency by reducing variations in care, establishing best practices, identifying and removing barriers to efficient care, and measuring outcomes. To this end, the company provides comprehensive programs in clinical care staffing, communication, and data management that support the hospitalist physician in the delivery of inpatient care.

Cogent Healthcare's programs are currently in 10 major markets throughout the United States. The company has contracts with more than 65 facilities including 155 hospitals with 1,300 referring primary care physicians, covering more than 2,000,000 lives. Cogent clients include leading health plans such as United Healthcare, Aetna, BlueCross/BlueShield, and Kaiser Permanente, plus leading hospitals and hospital systems such as Intermountain Healthcare, Baptist Health Systems in Florida and Texas, North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, and St. Vincent's Medical Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In addition to traditional hospitalist programs, the company has a program with Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest HMO, which has 2.7 million members in Southern California, to provide hospitalists to handle emergency care sought by its members at non-Kaiser hospitals.

More than two years ago, Cogent Healthcare also launched the first Internet-based continuing medical educational program for hospitalist physicians. Its CME programs for physicians, nurses and pharmacists can be accessed at the company's website, www.cogenthealthcare.com.