Consumerism Causing Evolution in Managed Care Products; Amisys Synertech Delivering Solutions That Will Help Health Plans Deal with Changes in Marketplace.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers/High-Tech Writers

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 2004

An evolution in the managed care industry over the next decade will significantly integrate elements of consumerism into traditional health insurance products, according to the president and CEO of Amisys Synertech Inc., forcing managed care companies to constantly improve information management and customer support infrastructure to survive.

A market leader of advanced software products and world-class outsourcing and claims processing services for healthcare payers, Amisys Synertech is participating in the 2004 National Managed Health Care Congress, May 5-6, in Washington, D.C. At the start of the conference, company President and CEO Kevin R. Brown said managed care companies face great pressure to help control healthcare spending. According to industry and government reports, total healthcare spending in the United States could double over the next decade to over $3 trillion.

Brown anticipates that the managed care industry will attempt to control spending increases through four main initiatives, which will require significant investments in comprehensive customer management infrastructure and continuous improvements of its information systems infrastructure. These initiatives include:

-- Care and wellness management, including predictive risk

modeling, medical management and disease management

-- Strategic initiatives, such as consumer-directed products and

Medicare Advantage initiatives

-- Decision support, including predictive risk modeling, disease

cohort analysis and effectiveness analysis

-- Administrative improvements, such as outsourcing and

differential underwriting.

"The evolution brought about by consumerism will bring a number of significant developments to the managed care industry," said Brown, who has more than 25 years of industry experience. "Complex point-of-service transactions, including debit card usage, management of an array of different funds, interfaces to financial management vehicles - all of these must be integrated to a health plan's product lines. They require increasing self-help support to members while reducing administrative expenses - a combination that will be difficult to achieve."

Brown estimates that comprehensive disease and medical management will continue to be vitally important to managed care companies and that eventually each type of product - HMO, PPO, POS and indemnity - will include a consumer-directed hybrid version.

He added that to quickly and efficiently develop these hybrid products, managed care companies will increasingly enlist the support of companies such as Amisys Synertech, which have consumer-directed experience and the infrastructure in place to bring a product to market quickly.

"Using strategic resources to implement these hybrid products will enable companies to control costs across all product lines," said Brown.

About Amisys Synertech Inc.

Amisys Synertech Inc. (www.asihealth.com) advances health plan business through its industry-leading products and services. The company delivers comprehensive, mission-critical information management software products and Web capabilities that meet the needs of nearly every healthcare payer model. Amisys Synertech also provides leading business process outsourcing and application hosting for health plans, supporting a multimillion-member base through its claims processing and consumer-directed services. Amisys Synertech has offices in Rockville, Md., Harrisburg, Pa., Dubuque, Iowa and Alpharetta, Ga.