Hypercom Transaction Processing System Will Support More Than 17,000 Unimed Healthcare Providers Throughout Northeastern Brazil

Business Wire, Feb 11, 1999

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 9, 1999--

Hypercom Solutions for Brazil's Leading Healthcare Provider

will serve Hospitals, Labs and Clinics in more than 63 Cities

Hypercom Corporation (NYSE: HYC), a global provider of electronic payment solutions, today announced that it is deploying its Ascendent(TM) Network Terminal Server (NTS) software and point-of-sale terminals to support more than 17,435 providers of the Unimed North/Northeast Healthcare Cooperative.

The cooperative serves 1.2 million patients in 63 cities throughout Northeastern Brazil. Hypercom's NTS will allow Unimed's physician, hospital and clinic providers to instantaneously determine patient medical eligibility, authorize medical services and prescriptions and process provider balances, issue reports and project their monthly expenses.

Hypercom's transaction processing systems are already deployed in 15 other Unimed regions, including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The latest agreement and deployment with Unimed North/Northeast will be completed by the end of the year. At that time, Hypercom(R) will manage transaction processing for 20,000 Unimed healthcare providers serving five million Unimed members in 80 cities throughout Brazil.

"The ever-increasing pace of medical advances and patient needs demand that today's healthcare provider optimize the delivery and accountability of services," said Dr. Reginaldo Tavares de Albuquerque, President, Alianca Cooperativista Nacional Unimed. "Hypercom's Ascendent platform lets us do just that with an end-to-end solution that processes and reacts to very high levels of data virtually instantaneously and is backed by a nationwide technical support staff. That means we can continue to offer the best in services to our healthcare providers and their more than five million patients."

"Unimed's selection of Hypercom underscores our position as the leading provider of the healthcare transactions processing solutions and demonstrates the advantages of Hypercom's solutions," said Jairo E. Gonzalez, President, Hypercom International. "We are very pleased to join with Unimed North/Northeast in its efforts to maintain and enhance its data transaction processing capabilities."

How the Network Works

After swiping a member's card, staff at a Unimed-member hospital, physician's office or clinic can verify insurance eligibility and benefits and authorize medical services and prescriptions. For example, a physician can authorize an X-ray online. The X-ray technician simply swipes the patient's card through the Hypercom network terminal to access the necessary authorization. By authorizing services online, the overhead costs involved in managing a patient's payment and medical records are reduced. Unimed network members benefit by having one centralized file that all providers can access, reducing time and processing hassles.

With Hypercom's Ascendent NTS client/server transaction software, the "brain" of the Unimed network resides on the server. Application processing occurs on a centralized server, which supports the entire terminal population. This approach enables user organizations to update a central processor rather than downloading software to each terminal.

Because Ascendent software runs on the UNIX(TM) and Microsoft Windows(TM) NT platforms, new applications, features and transactions types can be easily added without compromising host integrity. The NTS software serves as an "adaptive layer" by working in concert with legacy mainframe systems. Ascendent software is scalable, interoperable and fault-tolerant. In financial applications, Hypercom's NTS software supports high performance with current and emerging payment methods, including debit, credit, smart cards and Internet-based commerce.

The Confederation of North/Northeast is a member company of Unimed Cooperative responsible for management of operational process, as well as expansion of the cooperative doctrine throughout North and Northeast regions of Brazil. This regional system consists of 63 Unimed Cooperatives (each one called Singular), and eight State Federations, that currently assist 1,248,325 patients through 17,453 physicians offering an array of services in the States of Acre, Rondonia, Roraima, Amazonas, Para, Amapa, Maranhao, Piaui, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia. Unimed Confederation North/Northeast patients are also able to use any of the other Unimed Units' services located throughout Brazil.

Hypercom Corporation (NYSE: HYC) is a global provider of electronic payment solutions, including multi-functional point-of-sale terminals, peripherals, network products, transaction software, Internet-based and electronic commerce payment solutions. On a global basis Hypercom delivers the services and technology infrastructure required to quickly integrate and deploy new payment applications for competitive value-add programs, improved business performance and low total cost of ownership.

Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Hypercom markets its products in more than 60 countries through a global network of offices and affiliates in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Venezuela. Hypercom's Internet address is www.hypercom.com.