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Health Alliance Plan, Henry Ford Medical Group Hits One-Million e-Prescriptions; Partners Plan to Commit Increased Level of Resources DETROIT, July 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Based on the success of its innovative e-Prescribing pilot program, the nation's three largest U.S. automakers, General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and DaimlerChrysler Corp. (NYSE:DCX) today announced the immediate adoption of the Southeast Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative (SEMI) for an additional year. The program aims to reduce medication errors through the use of e-Prescribing technology, as well as to decrease prescription drug costs through the increased use of generic medications, formulary compliance and administrative efficiency. "E-Prescribing has proven to be an effective tool for protecting patient health and lowering costs associated with prescription drugs," says Marsha Manning, GM's Manager of Southeast Michigan Community Health Care Initiatives. "Renewing the program will help set the stage to make e-Prescribing not the exception, but the standard of care in Michigan." In February of 2005 the automakers joined forces with Henry Ford Medical Group, Health Alliance Plan (HAP), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and pharmacy benefit manager Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MHS) to launch the SEMI pilot program. Since then, more than 1,400 physicians have joined SEMI and preliminary results show significant improvements in their generic drug prescribing rates, formulary compliance, as well as reductions in adverse drug events due to prescribing errors. In reaching the milestone of their one-millionth e-Prescription in the HAP/Henry Ford Medical Group pilot project, 600 participating physicians have demonstrated that the technology yields compelling results. As a result of Henry Ford physicians utilizing e-Prescribing: -- More than 98,000 prescriptions were changed or cancelled due to drug- to-drug interaction alerts; -- More than 63,000 prescriptions were changed or canceled due to formulary alerts, which increased the use of generic drugs; -- By improving generic use rates, saving staff time and reducing medication errors, e-Prescribing is projected to save Henry Ford over $1 million per year beginning in 2006. "There are several reasons why I really like e-Prescribing," says Dr. Bruce Muma, Henry Ford's Northern Region Medical Director. "The most important reason is safety. This program eliminates several sources of danger for patients including handwriting interpretation, drug-to-drug interactions and incomplete information. "It is also great for patients because we can save them money by selecting the best medication based on insurance and it saves them time because they don't have to wait at the pharmacy. In fact, we once had a patient refuse to take a paper prescription," says Dr. Muma. Doctors at Henry Ford electronically prescribe by accessing DrFirst's Rcopia point of care software using a personal computer or wireless device such as a tablet PC. They can order or renew prescriptions and then transmit them over the Internet to retail and mail order pharmacies. HAP and Henry Ford provide training and ongoing support to office personnel, and HAP provides funding support and project management for the program. What began as a modest pilot project last year with 60 physicians quickly became a Henry Ford Health System-wide initiative, engaging more than 600 physicians. "E-Prescribing helps protect patient safety," said Francine Parker, HAP president and CEO. "Physicians can check prescriptions against patients' medication histories for potentially harmful allergies and drug interactions, and ensure the prescription is dispensed as written as sometimes errors are made due to misread or illegible handwritten prescription orders." The federal government also noted the significance of the SEMI initiative. In October 2005, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in collaboration with Medco, initiated a government-funded study of the SEMI program to analyze the impact of electronic prescribing on reducing medication errors and associated costs, while improving the quality of health care. The results of the study are expected to be available this fall. SEMI Program Enhancements In the coming year, the SEMI partners will focus on accelerating physician adoption of electronic prescribing by adopting best practices and key lessons learned. To further simplify the program, the number of technology vendors is being reduced and the program will increase the financial incentives for physicians to implement and use the technology in their practice. RxHub, LLC provides the technology infrastructure that supports the secure, bi-directional exchange of patient-specific prescribing information between physicians and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and the transmission of the electronic prescriptions to mail-order pharmacies. SureScripts provides the network linking for electronic communications between retail and community pharmacies and physicians. Advantages of e-Prescribing The benefits of e-Prescribing technology include reducing potentially harmful drug interactions by alerting physicians of possible risks, eliminating illegible physician hand-written prescriptions that can lead to medication dispensing errors, and eliminating patient wait time at the pharmacy by furnishing physicians with benefit plan details at the point of prescribing so that changes won't be needed when the prescription is being filled. CMS estimates that nationally, use of e-Prescribing technology could eliminate as many as two million harmful drug events each year. A separate Medco study of physicians using e-Prescribing technology found that physicians using the devices increased their generic substitution rates by over 15 percent and their generic dispensing rates by more than 8 percent. According to the Managed Care Institute, every one percent increase in the nation's generic prescription utilization rate would generate savings of $1.3 billion; generic drugs can cost as much as 70 percent less than brand name medications. About General Motors General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM), the world's largest automaker, has been the global industry sales leader for 75 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 327,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. In 2005, 9.17 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM operates one of the world's leading finance companies, GMAC Financial Services, which offers automotive, residential and commercial financing and insurance. GM's OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. More information on GM can be found at http://www.gm.com/. About Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures and distributes automobiles in 200 markets across six continents. With about 300,000 employees and more than 100 plants worldwide, the company's core and affiliated automotive brands include Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo. Its automotive- related services include Ford Motor Credit Company. About DaimlerChrysler Corp. DaimlerChrysler Corporation (Chrysler Group), headquartered in Auburn Hills, Mich., produces Chrysler, Jeep(R), Dodge and Mopar(R) brand vehicles and products. The company increased worldwide annual sales in 2005 by five percent to 2.83 million vehicles, making the Chrysler Group the only North American-based automaker to achieve a sales increase last year. Its product lineup features some of the world's most recognizable vehicles, including the Chrysler 300, the Jeep Commander, and the Dodge Charger. The DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund, the company's philanthropic arm, gave $26 million in grants in 2005. The Chrysler Group is a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG, the world's fifth largest automaker, which produces passenger and commercial vehicles including the Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, smart and Freightliner brands. About HAP Headquartered in Detroit, Mich., Health Alliance Plan (http://www.hap.org/) is the nonprofit managed care arm of the Henry Ford Health System. HAP serves more than 570,000 members. The National Committee for Quality Assurance awarded HAP's commercial HMO its highest status, Excellent Accreditation, and Full Accreditation for Alliance Health and Life Insurance Company PPO products. About Henry Ford Medical Group The Henry Ford Medical Group is one of the nation's largest group practices, with more than 900 physicians and researchers in 40 specialties who staff Henry Ford Hospital and 24 Henry Ford medical centers in Southeast Michigan. It is part of Henry Ford Health System (http://www.henryford.com/), one of the country's leading health care systems, that integrates primary and specialty care with research and education. About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit corporation, provides or administers health care benefits to just over 4.7 million members through a variety of plans: Traditional Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Preferred, Community Blue and Healthy Blue PPOs, Blue Choice Point of Service, Blue Care Network HMO, and Flexible Blue plans compatible with health savings accounts. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information, visit http://www.bcbsm.com/. About Medco Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MHS) is the nation's leading pharmacy benefit manager based on its 2005 total net revenues of nearly $38 billion. Medco's prescription drug benefit programs are designed to drive down the cost of pharmacy health care for private and public employers, health plans, labor unions and government agencies of all sizes, and for individuals served by the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program. Medco's technologically advanced mail-order pharmacies and award-winning Internet pharmacy have been recognized for setting new industry benchmarks for pharmacy dispensing quality. Medco serves the needs of patients with complex conditions requiring sophisticated treatment through its specialty pharmacy operation, which became the nation's largest with the 2005 acquisition of Accredo Health, Incorporated. Medco is the highest-ranked pharmacy benefit manager on the 2006 Fortune 500 list. On the Net: http://www.medco.com/. This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward- looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the risks and uncertainties that affect our business, particularly those mentioned in the Risk Factors section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. DATASOURCE: Southeast Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative CONTACT: Sharon Baldwin, GM, +1-248-753-4705; Dave Elshoff, DaimlerChrysler, +1-248-512-2690; Marcey Evans, Ford, +1-313-322-9211; Jennifer Luddy, Medco, +1-201-269-6402; Susan Schwandt, HAP, +1-248-443-1076; Dwight Angell, HFMG, +1-313-876-8709; or Helen Stojic, BCBSM, +1-313-225-8113 Web site: http://www.medco.com/ http://www.bcbsm.com/ http://www.hap.org/ http://www.henryford.com/ http://www.gm.com/

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