Express Scripts and Choicelinx Announce Strategic Alliance; Company Offering Customer-Designed Benefits Technology Joins Forces with Leading Pharmacy Benefit Manager.

Business/Health & Medical Editors

ST. LOUIS & MANCHESTER, N.H.--(BW HealthWire)--March 28, 2001

Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX), one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and Choicelinx Corporation, a benefits technology and services company specializing in a new generation of customer-designed products, today announced a three-year joint marketing deal.

Under the agreement, the two companies will co-market a combination of Web-based products that will allow employees of participating organizations to design health and pharmacy benefit plans according to their individual needs.

Using Choicelinx' proprietary configuration technology, self-insured employers and managed-care organizations can offer their employees and customers a fully customizable healthcare benefits solution. Choicelinx' online benefits tool now allows eligible members to select among multiple options to build healthcare and dental care benefit packages matched to their unique personal or family needs. The agreement with Express Scripts will add a complementary online pharmacy benefit planner to Choicelinx' current offerings. Using this Web-based tool, developed by Express Scripts' eBusiness division, Choicelinx users will be able to select the plan that best suits their needs from several pharmacy benefit options.

The arrangement will also supplement Express Scripts' sales activities, helping to attract new business from clients that recognize the value of being able to offer their members flexibility and choice.

"Choicelinx offers the dual benefit of giving consumers the freedom and power to manage their own health and giving employers a way to manage costs," said Donna K. Lencki, chairman and chief executive officer, Choicelinx Corporation. "Express Scripts is an ideal partner for us, providing a strong healthcare technology background, an experienced sales force, and a strong, choice-oriented pharmacy benefit tool."

"Express Scripts' online pharmacy benefit planner recognizes and accommodates the growing desire for choice among healthcare consumers," said Agnes Rey-Giraud, vice president and general manager, Express Scripts eBusiness division. "In addition, more employers are considering a move toward consumer-driven benefit plans as they seek to limit their exposure to rising costs. As a result, more employees will need easy-to-use tools to help them make informed coverage decisions. Our arrangement with Choicelinx allows our customers the flexibility to consider consumer-driven benefit plans and other creative solutions to help them counter current healthcare cost trends."

Rey-Giraud noted that the agreement with Choicelinx is one of a number of strategic alliances Express Scripts' is pursuing to further empower consumers.

Both Express Scripts and Choicelinx see the integration of their respective capabilities as yielding a synergy that will provide members with the most advanced healthcare benefits solution available -- one that is comprehensive, completely customizable and user-friendly. In addition, the arrangement will enable each company to leverage the power of the other's sales and distribution mechanisms.

About Choicelinx Corporation

Choicelinx Corporation is a benefits technology and services company specializing in a new generation of customer-designed benefits products for self-insured employers, traditional insurers, MCOs and financial services companies. Through its proprietary, Internet-based benefits customization technology, Choicelinx members can build unique healthcare benefits packages, customized to their individual needs. Choicelinx has combined state-of-the-art technology and medical management services with an experienced customer service team and expansive online management tools, including claims tracking, physician selectors, online service capabilities, as well as comprehensive health and wellness information. To learn more about how to offer the Choicelinx solution in your workplace, visit the company on the Web at www.choicelinx.com.

About Express Scripts, Inc.

Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX), a Fortune 500 and Forbes Platinum 400 company, is one of the nation's leading pharmacy benefit managers, providing pharmacy services and pharmacy benefit plan-design consultation for more than 10,000 clients and covering 43.5 million lives. The company's core services include pharmacy network management, mail and Internet pharmacies, formulary management, targeted clinical programs, integrated drug and medical data analysis, market research programs, medical information management, workers' compensation programs and informed-decision counseling. More can be learned at the company's Web site, www.express-scripts.com.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements related to the company's plans, objectives, expectations (financial and otherwise) or intentions. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements. Factors that may impact these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: (i) risks associated with our ability to maintain internal growth rates, or to control operating or capital costs; (ii) continued pressure on margins resulting from client demands for enhanced service offerings and higher service levels; (iii) competition, including price competition, and our ability to consummate contract negotiations with prospective clients; (iv) adverse results in regulatory matters, the adoption of new legislation or regulations (including increased costs associated with compliance with new laws and regulations, such as privacy regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)), more aggressive enforcement of existing legislation or regulations, or a change in the interpretation of existing legislation or regulations; (v) the possible termination of contracts with key clients or providers; (vi) the possible loss of relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers, or changes in pricing, discount or other practices of pharmaceutical manufacturers; (vii) adverse results in litigation; (viii) risks associated with our leverage and debt service obligations; (ix) risks associated with our ability to continue to develop new products, services and delivery channels; (x) developments in the health care industry, including the impact of increases in health care costs, changes in drug utilization and cost patterns and introductions of new drugs; (xi) competition from new competitors offering services that may in whole or in part replace services that the company now provides to its customers; and (xii) other risks described from time to time in our filings with the SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions to such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.