BLUE CROSS LAUNCHES LEADING-EDGE MAGNETIC SWIPE CARD TECHNOLOGY TO SAVE TIME AND REDUCE ERRORS IN HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

BCBSTX Teams Up with University of Texas and Availity for a Pilot Program which Introduces New Health Care Industry Technology.

Austin, TX. (Sept. 24, 2007) -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) announced today that it will work with the University of Texas System and Availity, beginning Monday, Sept. 24, to distribute 160,000 magnetic-stripe member ID cards to kick-off a pilot program that will provide added convenience by saving time and reducing errors for physicians and Blue Cross members across Texas. The new ID cards will instantly check members’ eligibility and benefits, when swiped through a card reader system at their physicians’ offices.

Initially, the program will be introduced to the University of Texas members in the Austin area, with plans to expand later to additional areas across Texas.  Fifty one selected physicians’ offices and two locations in the Seton Health Care System in the Austin area will be using the swipe-card reader technology during the pilot. Availity, one of the leading providers of Internet-based e-health information services, is co-owned by Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida and Humana. Blue Cross is taking the lead in the marketplace by working with Availity to start its pilot program about eight months before recently passed Texas legislation requires a pilot to be conducted by the state to provide health insurance member ID cards with electronic information capabilities.

“Having the ability to initiate this pilot program positions our company on the leading edge of magnetic swipe-card technology for the health care industry in Texas,” says Darren Rodgers, senior vice president, Health Care Management, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas. “Part of the excitement of this initiative is that it not only provides instant verification, but it provides this new capability using a paperless process with no charge to doctors for transactions.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas – the only statewide, non-investor-owned health insurer in Texas – is the largest provider of health benefits in the state, working with nearly 40,000 physicians and 400 hospitals to serve 3.5 million members in all 254 counties. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is a division of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), the country’s largest non-investor-owned health insurer and fourth largest health insurer overall. HCSC is a Mutual Legal Reserve Company and an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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