Corporate Benefit Consultants Forms Strategic Alliance With HealthyMe.md To Offer Benefits and Insurance Packages for Physicians and Their Patients.

Health/Medical Writers

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BW HealthWire)--July 20, 2000

Physicians Can Now Access Innovative Insurance Packages

and Benefits Programs and Offer Their Patients

Wellness Programs All Via the Internet

Corporate Benefit Consultants today announced that the company has formed a strategic alliance with HealthyMe.md Inc.(TM).

Under terms of the agreement, Corporate Benefit Consultants (CBC) will develop employee benefit and general insurance packages for physician affiliates of HealthyMe.md. CBC will also pay for the HealthyMe.md service for their physician-practice clients that become HealthyMe.md affiliates.

HealthyMe.md currently offers a Web service designed to improve the health of consumers by strengthening their relationship with their personal physician. Primarily developed for women, HealthyMe.md gives patients access to health information directly from their physician's customized Web sites and more than 600 pages of peer-reviewed, mainstream medical content.

Working jointly with HealthyMe.md, CBC will develop innovative wellness and benefit services for the physician affiliates of HealthyMe.md. This alliance will make it possible to aggregate employers and employees into benefit groups, which will give all participants better buying power when selecting benefits packages. All of the services to be developed, including benefits administration and compliance, will be available through the Internet on the HealthyMe.md Web site.

In addition, many of the benefits in the physician's employee/employer package will be made available to patients on affiliate practices' Web sites and through the HealthyMe.md site. Among the products to be offered is a wellness smoking control training product that can reduce a woman's risk from smoking without the use of chemicals. HealthyMe.md plans to offer this smoking cessation program to expectant mothers and other women trying to quit smoking.

"Our clients have told us that they want our organization to provide a turn-key operation, including consulting, insurance marketing and placement, and administration and compliance," said W. Hal Shepherd, CLU, ChFC, MSFM, REBC, president and CEO of Corporate Benefit Consultants. "HealthyMe.md is a gateway to the Internet and this relationship gives us an opportunity to extend our expertise to a much wider audience than we had before."

"We are pleased to enter this relationship with CBC," said Thomas Stovall, MD, MBA, chairman and chief executive officer of HealthyMe.md. "CBC will provide an outstanding turn-key benefits and insurance package that will improve the operations of our physician affiliates which ultimately benefits patients as well."

About Corporate Benefit Consultants

Corporate Benefit Consultants (CBC) has clients throughout the United States and Canada, including The Marshall Islands. CBC's primary focus has been working with health care providers, non-profits, governmental and educational institutions. Employees of these organizations work in over 50 foreign countries. CBC's parent company was founded in 1969. Senior management has been with the company since its inception.

About HealthyMe.md

Based in Memphis, Tenn., the HealthyMe.md service was created to improve the health of patients by strengthening the physician/patient relationship. HealthyMe.md establishes a direct link between patients and their own personal physician, providing patient-focused, scientifically accurate health care information and services targeted to women. HealthyMe.md's mission is to provide information that patients can easily find and readily use to improve the health and wellness of their families. The HealthyMe.md consumer Web site can be accessed at www.healthyme.md. A live demo of a HealthyMe.md's physician's site can be accessed at www.mmwc.md.