Press Release

Manasquan, N.J., USA, August 11, 2005 - According to a 2003 report by the Partnership for Solutions, a research group at Johns Hopkins University, people with chronic conditions account for 88 percent of all prescriptions filled, 72 percent of all physician visits and 76 percent of all inpatient stays. Often, unhealthy lifestyles are at the root of these budget-burdening conditions.

Employers may not be able to prevent employees from getting the flu, but they can certainly encourage them to avoid illnesses induced by their behavior. In this developing trend of quid pro quo, employers are instituting lifestyle incentive programs to push employees to take charge of their health.

“Healthy Lifestyle Incentives: Strategies to Control Healthcare Costs,” a September 7, 2005 audio conference sponsored by the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN) examines how organizations are offering workers incentives to adopt healthy lifestyles, aiming to reduce healthcare costs driven by behavior. During this 90-minute audio conference, expert panelists will highlight structural elements and motivating tools within current effective incentive programs as well as plans for future enhancement. The audio conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on September 7, 2005. For more details on attending the audio conference, please visit the HIN bookstore.

“Lifestyle incentive programs are part of the move toward consumer-driven healthcare,” said Melanie Matthews, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of HIN. “Such incentives for personal accountability are one step in the direction of disease prevention and cost reduction,” she added.

During this 90-minute audio conference, expert panelists Tami Collin, principal, National Health and Productivity Management at Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Rebecca Kelly, wellness coordinator, American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO) Health Services and Michelle Kirby, vice president, people and culture, Texas Health Resources, detail strategies that have already generated positive results. These speakers outline lifestyle incentive programs from the inside out, describing:

• The types of incentives offered;
• Structure of the incentive program;
• What types of incentives are most motivating;
• Results from program incentives; and
• Planned enhancements to the incentives program.

“Monitoring healthy lifestyles is difficult,” acknowledged Nan Andrews Amish, business strategist, Big Picture Healthcare, in response to a recent HIN survey on lifestyle incentives. “Encouraging healthy behavior at work is easier.”

This audio conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on September 7, 2005. It will conclude with a live question-and-answer period during which participants can benefit from experts’ personal experience with these programs. A recorded version on CD-ROM and printed transcript of this audio conference will be available in late September. For those who cannot attend the audio conference, please visit the HIN bookstore for information on HIN’s “On-Demand” audio conference re-broadcasts.

This audio conference is designed to benefit key health plan executives, medical and disease management directors, care management nurses and those responsible for business development and strategic planning. For more information on the conference, please email info@hin.com, call toll-free (888) 446-3530 or visit the HIN bookstore.

About the Healthcare Intelligence Network---HIN is the premier advisory service for executives seeking high-quality strategic information on the business of healthcare. For more information, contact the Healthcare Intelligence Network, PO Box 1442, Wall Township, NJ 07719-1442, (888) 446-3530, fax (732) 292-3073, e-mail info@hin.com, or visit http://www.hin.com.

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