AT&T Win: AT&T Wins One of Largest Telecommunications Deals in Health Care Industry - Company Business and Marketing

EDGE, On & About AT&T, May 3, 1999

AT&T announced Wednesday that it has been awarded a five-year agreement by VHA Inc., valued at more than $500 million, to provide a full range of services to VHA member organizations. The contract will allow AT&T to offer leading edge telecommunications services at substantially reduced costs to VHA's 1,800 health care organizations and their affiliated physicians.

AT&T will offer a negotiated package of reduced rates for long distance and local telephone services, data network services, Internet access, teleconferencing and operator services. The agreement is part of an ongoing VHA initiative to expand its portfolio of products linking physicians and health care organizations through advanced telecommunications and Internet services. Savings are expected to total more than $55 million off standard costs for VHA members during the life of the contract.

"This national contract offers significant cost savings on existing and new service offerings," said Curt Nonomaque, VHA executive vice president and chief financial officer. "We believe this is an excellent example of how VHA can deliver value to its members."

VHA is a nationwide network of more than 1,800 leading community-owned health care organizations and their physicians. The VHA network comprises 24 percent of the nation's community hospitals. With offices in Irving, Texas, and 19 locations throughout the country, VHA offers products and services in six categories - clinical effectiveness, information technology, learning networks and education, market share development, performance improvement and supply chain management. For more information on VHA, go to http://www.vha.com.

AT&T (http://www.att.com) is the world's premier provider of voice and data communications, with more than 80 million customers, including businesses, government and consumers. AT&T runs the world's largest, most powerful long-distance network and the largest wireless network in North America. The company is a leading supplier of data and Internet services for businesses and the nation's largest direct Internet service provider to consumers. AT&T also provides local telephone service to a growing number of businesses.