Microsoft Health Plan Initiative Is Supported by 22 Companies

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2006 — Today at the World Health Care Congress, 22 companies announced support for Knowledge Driven Health Plans, Microsoft Corp.’s vision and solutions framework for the health plan industry. The initiative harnesses the collaborative power of Microsoft® integrated enterprise and consumer technology platforms, and the deep industry expertise of its leading business solutions partners, to enable the types of knowledge-based decisions needed for transformation across the health plan industry. Working with a core group of business solution vendors and systems integrators, Microsoft is able to offer health plans an unparalleled breadth and depth of industry solutions that enable people and the organizations they drive to address the changing business challenges and the rising costs associated with healthcare.

Microsoft’s industry partners have been able to benefit from the company’s established consumer community — and the cost advantages afforded by its technology platform, applications and online services — to develop affordable, scalable solutions for health plans. The solutions further benefit from the flexibility built into Microsoft’s technology, which, based on open standards, enables integration with legacy systems and adoption of service-oriented architectures. Aligned with Microsoft’s vision for the health plan industry, the solutions provided by this strong ecosystem of partners address key industry areas, from care and wellness management to business intelligence and improved customer service communications.

“Building on Microsoft’s agile technology, this group of leading industry partners helps bring our vision for health plans to life,” said Steve Shihadeh, general manager of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Microsoft. “The solutions framework that Microsoft and our partners utilize enables health plans to make more-informed decisions by offering access to real-time information and better collaboration across systems and organizations. Our solutions help drive better business decision-making and better health outcomes.”

These are the companies announcing support for Microsoft’s health plan initiative:

More information about Microsoft’s solutions for the health plans industry is available at http://www.microsoft.com/healthplans.

About Microsoft in Healthcare and Life Sciences

Microsoft provides standards-based products and technology to help the healthcare and life sciences industries break down information barriers between the disparate IT environments across pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, physicians and healthcare professionals, provider organizations, government and private-sector employers, health insurers, and consumers. Microsoft’s vision for knowledge-driven health utilizes the company’s market-leading technology to help these groups integrate their systems, dramatically enhance collaboration, and increase information sharing and learning — ultimately resulting in the ability to deliver high-quality products and services to patients and healthy consumers worldwide. More information about Microsoft in Healthcare and Life Sciences can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/healthcare.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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