Companies Offered Year-2000 Assurance With Innovative Medical Mutual Service.

CLEVELAND--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 3, 1998--Companies can now have peace of mind knowing that their health benefits program will survive the test of the new millennium with Assurance 2000, a one-of-a-kind service offered by Medical Mutual of Ohio and subsidiary Antares Management Solutions.

Assurance 2000 protects a company's employees' health benefits program should their current health insurance carrier not be Year-2000 (Y2K) compliant.

"Companies need to concentrate on running their business," said George Stadtlander, Medical Mutual vice president of Product Management. "They don't have time to worry about their health benefits being in jeopardy because their health insurance company may not be Y2K-compliant."

With Assurance 2000, companies can purchase an option to switch their health benefits program to Medical Mutual of Ohio if their current carrier experiences problems dealing with the Year-2000 problem. Assurance 2000 provides priority processing of a customer's application for Medical Mutual coverage at a time when many companies may be shopping for a Year-2000 compliant health insurance carrier.

According to a report on Cable News Network, 40 percent of companies polled in September 1998 have already experienced some type of Year-2000 related disruption. Problems included processing errors, financial miscalculations and customer-service disruptions.

Medical Mutual of Ohio, a technology leader in the health insurance industry, began developing Year-2000 compliant systems in 1995 and became fully compliant in July of this year. The company's efforts have been featured in national publications such as BusinessWeek and ComputerWorld.

"Medical Mutual guarantees Assurance 2000 customers a similar benefits package at a similar price to their current carrier," said Ed Hartzell, president and CEO of Antares Management Solutions, which markets Medical Mutual's Year-2000 compliant systems. "Once a customer exercises his option, they become a Medical Mutual customer, entitled to use Ohio's finest panel of doctors and hospitals in addition to being Year-2000 compliant."

"We realized three years ago that it would be important to fix the Year-2000 problem so our members could rest easy," said Kent Clapp, Medical Mutual chairman, president & CEO. "With Assurance 2000, members of other health insurance companies can rest easy, too."

Antares Management Solutions is a for-profit subsidiary of Medical Mutual of Ohio, offering state-of-the-art computer systems and administrative services to businesses in the medical and health insurance industries. Antares has annualized revenues of $40 million.

Founded in 1934, Medical Mutual is the largest and oldest health insurance company based in Ohio. The company offers a variety of high-quality, affordable health insurance products through managed care, point-of-service, major medical and traditional indemnity plans to 1.4 million members. Based in Cleveland, Medical Mutual has offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton and Youngstown.