Emdeon Announces Strategic Relationship with Noridian to Expand Emdeon's Footprint in the Public Payer Sector

NASHVILLE, Tenn. and FARGO, N.D., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Emdeon Inc. (NYSE: EM), a leading provider of healthcare revenue and payment cycle management solutions, today announced a strategic relationship with Noridian Mutual Insurance Company (NMIC), doing business as Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, and Noridian Administrative Services, LLC (NAS). NMIC provides quality health care coverage and additional supplemental coverage for those seeking medical, life, disability, long-term care and related insurance coverage. NAS, a subsidiary of NMIC, specializes in providing government agencies and private businesses with administrative services, from contact centers and document management to print and mail operations.

Through the strategic relationship, Emdeon will assume operations for the NMIC printing facility in Fargo, N.D., and secure an experienced and highly reputable Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) partner committed to making healthcare more efficient. Emdeon and NAS also entered into a teaming arrangement designed to enhance Emdeon's business development efforts within the public payer sector. In addition, Emdeon entered into license and reseller arrangements for Noridian's EXACT™ software technology, which will enable Emdeon to utilize EXACT™ for Emdeon's internal use and for the benefit of its customers.

"This strategic relationship accelerates and broadens Emdeon's business development within the public payer sector by partnering with a well-known, established MAC that has an excellent reputation within CMS," said Gary Stuart, executive vice president of payer services for Emdeon. "Given the current focus on health reform, Emdeon is well positioned to deliver significant savings to the public payer sector, including CMS, through our products and services. Our relationship with Noridian further demonstrates our companies' shared vision to make healthcare more efficient."

For over forty years, NAS has served the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) through numerous legacy and MAC contracts for Medicare Part A, Part B and durable medical equipment business. Through the strategic relationship, Emdeon will be able to accelerate savings in the public payer sector by leveraging the products and efficiencies within Emdeon's Payment Management Solutions for the fulfillment of provider checks, remittance advice and member explanation of benefits, as well as 1099s and identification cards.

Noridian's EXACT™ technology was designed to align with the Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) initiative and is a comprehensive healthcare service oriented architecture platform with reusable interfaces to key federal systems, as well as a state Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS).  MITA is an initiative of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations that supports the advancement of standardized system interfaces, interoperability and secure data exchange. Utilizing reusable interfaces and plug and play capabilities, Noridian's EXACT™ technology will be integrated to provide federal, state and commercial healthcare systems greater access to Emdeon's comprehensive suite of products and services.

"We are very excited about the value-proposition of Noridian's strategic relationship with Emdeon," said Mike Hamerlik, president and chief executive officer for Noridian Administrative Services.  "Emdeon's extensive payer/provider network and solutions combined with Noridian's technology and healthcare administration experience will provide state and federal government agencies with new tools for dealing with today's healthcare challenges. Separately and in partnership, our two organizations remain focused on improving health care administration through lower costs, improved quality and technology integration."

Emdeon and Noridian will be exhibiting during the MMIS conference in Portland, Ore., August 15-19, 2010, to demonstrate how the EXACT™ platform, once integrated with an MMIS, can interact with Emdeon's third party liability solution at room A109 and booth number 70.

About Emdeon

Emdeon is a leading provider of revenue and payment cycle management solutions, connecting payers, providers and patients in the U.S. healthcare system. Emdeon's product and service offerings integrate and automate key business and administrative functions of its payer and provider customers throughout the patient encounter. Through the use of Emdeon's comprehensive suite of products and services, which are designed to easily integrate with existing technology infrastructures, customers are able to improve efficiency, reduce costs, increase cash flow and more efficiently manage the complex revenue and payment cycle process. For more information, visit www.emdeon.com.

About Noridian Mutual Insurance Company and Noridian Administrative Services

With more than 60 years of experience in the health insurance industry, Noridian Mutual Insurance Company (NMIC) provides quality health care coverage and supplemental products, including medical, life, disability, long-term care and related insurance coverage. NMIC provides quality health care coverage as Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota throughout North Dakota as a licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

For more information, visit www.noridian.com or www.bcbsnd.com.

Noridian Administrative Services, LLC, (NAS) a wholly-owned subsidiary of NMIC, specializes in providing government agencies and private businesses with administrative services, from contract centers and document management to print and mail operations. Under the primary Medicare contracts (Part A, Part B, DME), NAS covers 18 states in the Midwest and West, distributing $19.1 billion in claims payments in 2009.

In addition, NAS has the national Medicare contract on pricing, data analysis and coding (PDAC) for the durable medical equipment industry. NAS also serves as a Medicaid administrator for the state of Iowa, for a 2009 workload of approximately 20 million claims paying $2.8 billion. For more information, visit www.nasadvantage.com.

Statements made in this press release that express Emdeon's or management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or predictions of future events are forward-looking statements, which Emdeon intends to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements often include words such as "may," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements may include information concerning Emdeon's possible or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of Emdeon's revenues, profitability and outlook and its overall business strategy. You should not place undue reliance on these statements because they are subject to numerous uncertainties and factors relating to Emdeon's operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Emdeon's control. Although Emdeon believes that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect Emdeon's actual financial results or results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including the risks discussed in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections and elsewhere in Emdeon's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, as well as Emdeon's periodic and other reports, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statement made by Emdeon herein, or elsewhere, speaks only as of the date on which made. Emdeon expressly disclaims any intent, obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements made herein to reflect any change in Emdeon's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements are based.

SOURCE Emdeon Inc.