LEADING GLOBAL ADVISORS JOIN MBPROJECT

Contact: Evelyn Marquez Sanchez
615-794-2009
info@mbproject.org

Franklin, TN (October 31, 2005)  The Medical Banking Project has announced the ratification of an initial set of Advisory Board members related to its open source, open standards-based initiative called "C.O.M.B.A.T." for "Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture and Technology". The effort, intended to spur industry adoption of medical banking principles and technology, targets rising healthcare costs by implementing a real time administrative and clinical messaging test platform that banks can use to engage all healthcare stakeholders, including consumers.

"We are delighted that these prominent organizations have joined our membership-driven effort as advisors. We want to help banks to help their healthcare customers speed adoption of a 'medical internet'," said John Casillas, founder and executive director of MBProject.

The C.O.M.B.A.T. Advisory Board members include, by stakeholder:

• Healthcare Providers: American Hospital Association, Solutions (AHA)
• Banks: The National Clearing House (NCHA)
• Consumers: National Health Council (NHC); Consumers for Healthcare Choices (CHCChoices); Family Voices; National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) at The Urban Institute
• Healthcare IT: Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS); Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE); Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC)
• Employers: Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)

MBProject has attracted a growing list of prominent supporters that include The Walt Disney Company, Covisint, United Healthcare/Exante, Lasalle Bank/ABN AMRO, PNC Bank, ACS, Fiserv, Revolution Healthcare Group/ConnectYourCare, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BearingPoint, Duke's Fuqua School of Business and many others. Members, organized into six workgroups, provide input into a Steering Committee that in turn directs subcommittee work to build and test the platform. Use cases will focus on lockbox specialization (speeding X12N 835 remittance adoption), real-time administrative messaging (settling medical claims in real time), bank-driven Personal Healthcare Records and optimizing community safety net resources.

"The banking community can make a significant contribution to healthcare. Our initiative is as much about broadcasting this unique opportunity for all stakeholders as it is about implementing a platform," comments Casillas. "We are entering a very exciting and dynamic phase at MBProject with leading organizations. Our members, now assisted by an Advisory Board, will make a positive contribution towards implementing a digital healthcare environment that reduces costs and saves lives."

About the Medical Banking Project...

The Medical Banking Project (a.k.a. “MBProject”) is an independent policy research and strategic advisory firm that facilitates the latent integration of banking   technology, infrastructure and credit resources with healthcare administrative operations. The firm coined the term “medical banking™” in 1995 to denote this emerging niche’ industry. It provides educational and workgroup forums and is spearheading two related initiatives: a global, open source software platform (“C.O.M.B.A.T. – Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture & Technology™”) to combat rising healthcare costs using medical banking principles and technology and a fee-based, bank-driven community system ("Charitable Communities Network™") that coordinates safety net healthcare access for uninsurable, uninsured and under-insured individuals. The initiatives demonstrate how banks can leverage HIPAA's privacy, security and electronic mandates to deliver substantive cost benefits to care givers, employers and consumers. For more information, please go to http://www.mbproject.org.

###

This is commercial email. It may contain advertising or solicitation.

© Copyright 2004 The Medical Banking Project, 320 Main Street, Suite 230, Franklin, TN 37064. All rights reserved.