Emdeon and Noridian Mutual Insurance enter strategic relationship

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.