Hibernia Launches New Service to Help Streamline the Processing of Healthcare Receivables.

Business Editors

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2003

e-Healthcare Solutions helps transition hospitals and other

providers and payors to electronic-payment systems

Hibernia National Bank (NYSE:HIB) has launched a new service designed to help streamline the processing of healthcare receivables and control the escalating cost of healthcare.

e-Healthcare Solutions allows hospitals, healthcare systems and providers to transition from manual to electronic-payment processing systems. This new service benefits both providers as well as those who pay for healthcare, such as insurance companies, plan sponsors and employers.

e-Healthcare Solutions is a suite of solutions designed to help the healthcare industry increase claims revenue and reduce administrative costs as well as comply with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the act requires healthcare providers to eliminate waste, fraud and misuse or face penalties.

David Frady, Hibernia's executive vice president and manager of the commercial products and services division, said e-Healthcare Solutions can respond to clients' growing needs to reduce administrative costs and improve customer service.

"Our clients have to address the federal mandates and at the same time find ways to remain financially solvent in an extremely competitive industry," Frady said. "e-Healthcare Solutions is a comprehensive set of services that will help make our clients HIPAA-compliant and complement their existing accounting systems."

For healthcare providers, e-Healthcare Solutions offers:

-- 835 Receivables Process: encourages insurance companies and

employers to submit payments electronically. Payments then can

be integrated into clients' accounting systems faster. The

migration to the HIPAA transaction sets will generate both

hard and soft dollar savings.

-- e-Health Data Capture: reads information on paper explanations

of benefits (EOBs) and integrates it into patient-accounting

systems. It also offers same-day access to full-color images

of all payments, both paper and electronic, and paper EOBs on

a secured Internet site.

-- e-Health Patient Payments: marries statement printing and

mailing, with the automated scanline capture of payment data

through the use of optical character recognition technology.

Payments are received with the associated data transmitted in

an 835 file format for automated posting.

For payors, e-Healthcare Solutions provides:

-- e-Health Disbursements: offers the ability to pass payments

and remittance advice data to providers.

-- e-Health Premiums: sends electronic premium payments and

subscriber data for integration into clients' accounting

systems.

-- e-Health Enrollments: allows electronic transmission of

enrollment data from employer subscribers to payors.

e-Healthcare Solutions also reduces the time and costs associated with manual posting and reconciliation of patient-remittance advices, as well as premium payments and data and enrollments from employers. The benefits also include a reduction in posting errors and the time spent correcting manual errors.

"The challenges in the healthcare industry are great but surmountable with the right systems in place," said Marsha Montgomery, Hibernia senior product manager.

A Forbes 500 company, Hibernia has $17.9 billion in assets and 261 locations in 34 Louisiana parishes and 18 Texas counties. Hibernia Corporation's common stock (HIB) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.