Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri Offers Medicare-Approved Prescription Drug Card

Business Wire, June 3, 2004

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2004

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri (BCBSMo) today announced that it will offer its eligible Medicare members a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare-approved prescription drug discount card called PrecisionDiscounts. By making the PrecisionDiscounts card available, BCBSMo expects to help its Medicare members lower their out-of-pocket costs on prescription medications.

Enrollment for the PrecisionDiscounts card is now open and free to all eligible Medicare beneficiaries. Beginning July 1, 2004, the PrecisionDiscounts card will provide discounts off the regular cash price of thousands of prescription drugs. The PrecisionDiscounts Program has negotiated discounts with pharmacies and all leading pharmaceutical companies and will pass a substantial portion of these discounts along to PrecisionDiscounts cardholders, further decreasing the out-of-pocket cost of prescription medications.

"Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri is pleased to be able to make the Medicare-approved prescription drug discount card available free of charge," said Kathleen Zorica, BCBSMo general manager, consumer services. "The PrecisionDiscounts card empowers our Medicare members to save on both brand name and generic prescription drugs. Our competitive prices are due to our pharmacy benefits management company's negotiating strength with pharmacies as well as its strong relationship with the pharmaceutical manufacturers."

Made possible through WellPoint Pharmacy Management, in association with NationsHealth, a national leading discount card provider, the PrecisionDiscounts card is a Medicare-approved drug discount card offered with no enrollment fee.

Additional features of the PrecisionDiscounts card include:

-- Highly competitive drug prices.

-- Access to a large pharmacy network, with more than 50,000

nationwide chain and independent pharmacies.

-- Mail order service through PrecisionRx.

-- All prescription products that CMS allows to be discounted are

covered under the PrecisionDiscounts program.

Also, if a person qualifies based on income, he or she will be eligible for a $600 credit for the rest of this year, plus a $600 credit next year, toward the cost of your prescription drugs.

Consumers do not have to be a Medicare supplemental plan member in order to receive this card, however, they must be enrolled in Medicare Part A or Medicare Part B. Discounts using the PrecisionDiscounts card are available as early as July 1, depending on when a person enrolls. Beneficiaries are limited to one endorsed Medicare-approved card.

The PrecisionDiscounts Card is part of Medicare's interim drug benefit program. Created through the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 passed in December, the goal of the drug benefit program is to help seniors with the cost of prescription medication until Medicare Part D, the full prescription drug benefit, takes effect in January 2006.

For more information about the discount card or information about the medications covered by the program, eligible Medicare beneficiaries should visit www.precisiondiscounts.com or call Customer Service at 1-800-585-0352.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri serves more than 1.1 million medical members and is the oldest and largest health benefits company in Missouri. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri is an operating subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., the nation's second largest publicly traded health care company serving the health care needs of more than 15.3 million medical members and approximately 46 million specialty members nationally. WellPoint offers a broad spectrum of quality network-based health products including open access PPO, POS and hybrid products, HMO and specialty products. Specialty products include pharmacy benefit management, dental, utilization management, vision, mental health, life and disability insurance, long term care insurance, flexible spending accounts, COBRA administration, and Medicare supplements. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri can be found on the web at www.bcbsmo.com. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri is independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri is the name RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc. (RIT) uses to do business in most of Missouri. RIT and certain affiliates administer non-HMO benefits underwritten by Healthy Alliance Life Insurance Company (HALIC) and HMO benefits underwritten by HMO Missouri, Inc. HMO Missouri, Inc. does business as BlueCHOICE. RightCHOICE and certain affiliates only provide administrative services for self-funded plans and do not underwrite benefits. RightCHOICE, HMO Missouri, Inc. and HALIC are independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.