Cross Country Healthcare Announces Completion of Metropolitan Research Acquisition.

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (Nasdaq:CCRN) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of the assets of privately-held Metropolitan Research Associates, LLC and Metropolitan Research Staffing Associates, LLC (collectively "Metropolitan Research") for $18.6 million in cash, plus a potential earn-out of up to $6.4 million based on 2006 and 2007 performance. Cross Country Healthcare financed this transaction using its revolving credit facility. The Company expects this acquisition to be accretive to its 2006 earnings by approximately $0.01 per diluted share.

Based in New York City, Metropolitan Research is a full-service pharmaceutical consulting firm providing clinical trials staffing, drug safety monitoring and contract research services to the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries while providing its healthcare professional candidates with temporary or permanent clinical staffing career opportunities. In 2005, Metropolitan Research had revenue of $17.5 million and adjusted EBITDA of $2.6 million.

"We look forward to the future contributions of Metropolitan Research and the diversification of service offerings they bring to our ClinForce clinical trials staffing business," said Joseph A. Boshart, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. "We believe in the long-term growth prospects of our clinical trials staffing business driven by the on-going research activities of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostic companies to develop new medical products for an aging U.S. population, as well as post-marketing safety studies of older products. As a result, we plan to seek additional acquisition opportunities that can be added to our clinical trials staffing platform," added Mr. Boshart.

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. is a leading provider of healthcare staffing services in the United States. The Company has a national client base of over 3,000 hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare providers. Copies of this and other news releases as well as additional information about Cross Country can be obtained online at www.crosscountry.com. Shareholders and prospective investors can also register at the corporate website to automatically receive the Company's press releases by e-mail.

This release contains forward-looking statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions or that include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "suggests" and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results and performance to be materially different from any future results or performance expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include: our ability to attract and retain qualified nurses and other healthcare personnel, costs and availability of short-term apartment leases for our travel nurses, demand for the healthcare services we provide, both nationally and in the regions in which we operate, the functioning of our information systems, the effect of existing or future government regulation and federal and state legislative and enforcement initiatives on our business, our clients' ability to pay us for our services, our ability to successfully implement our acquisition and development strategies, the effect of liabilities and other claims asserted against us, the effect of competition in the markets we serve, our ability to successfully defend the Company, its subsidiaries, and its officers and directors on the merits of any lawsuit or determine its potential liability, if any, and other factors set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization as adjusted for certain one-time revenue and expense items. Although we believe these statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we cannot guarantee future results. Given these uncertainties, the forward-looking statements discussed in this press release might not occur.