Intuit Inc, and Ingenix, with an initial group of leading national health care companies and a leading human resources outsourcing and consulting services company, launched an initiative to develop and distribute products and services that will simplify the way millions of American consumers manage their health care.

The initiative is the foundation of an exclusive multi-year agreement to produce a series of Quicken®-branded health care management products that will help simplify health care management and improve decision-making in the same way Quicken revolutionized personal finance.

The first companies who have expressed a commitment to this initiative include a wide range of participants in the health care industry:

• UnitedHealthcare: The provider of health benefit services and solutions for approximately 25 million Americans.
  
  
• Hewitt Associates: A leading provider of human resources outsourcing and consulting services to over 2,500 organizations worldwide, including more than 350 benefits outsourcing clients which represent more than 18 million employees, retirees plus their dependents.
  
  
• Optima Health: The provider of hospital, physician and insurance services to more than 350,000 consumers in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.
  
  
• Exante Financial Services: A division of UnitedHealth Group and provider of health-related financial services, including health care accounts for more than 1 million Americans.

Other major health plans, health systems and industry players are expected to announce their involvement in the coming months.

The first of these new Quicken-branded products and services, planned to be available in 2007, will help consumers make better health care decisions and will help them save time and money. For the first time, millions of people will have the ability to view and organize the flood of information coming from a variety of health care sources, including medical bills, insurance payments and medical records from physicians and hospitals, into one easy-to-use system.

"Already flooded with millions of pieces of medical and insurance-related paperwork, Americans are assuming more control over their own health care," said Richard Anderson, chief executive officer of Ingenix. "Currently, 82 percent of American households are spending significant time organizing, filing and reconciling their health care information. We will break through that clutter of information and consolidate it, so consumers can be empowered to make the right decisions and save time and money."

This initiative will help strengthen the relationships between consumers and their health plans, doctors, pharmacies and others by making it easy for them to organize, plan, manage and direct their health care.

"Americans spend more than $350 billion in out-of-pocket medical expenses each year," said Steve Bennett, president and chief executive officer of Intuit. "One of the ways we can help is to equip consumers with tools that enable them to easily navigate through their health care information and decide what's right for them. There's a huge consumer need for this and one that we can address well using our experience from Quicken and TurboTax. We expect this to be another great growth opportunity for Intuit."

Content Consolidation System Powers Information Exchange

The health care management products will be based on a new health care content consolidation delivery system. This new system and its future versions will enable health plans, physicians, pharmacies and banks to exchange accurate, up-to-date medical and financial information with consumers, and will be designed to be compliant with industry security and privacy regulations. This information will be available anytime, anywhere via the Internet and will help consumers make more informed decisions faster, and health plans and providers to better serve member and patient needs.

A Wide Range of Initial Key Participants

The first group of companies who will join the initiative—UnitedHealthcare, Optima Health, Hewitt Associates and Exante Financial Services—bring a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise.

UnitedHealthcare insures approximately 25 million individuals and is at the forefront of the convergence of health care and financial services. As the leader in affordable health care solutions, UnitedHealthcare continues to improve access to quality care for consumers while providing innovative services to make the process easier and more rewarding.

Optima Health, a leading provider-owned hospital network and insurer, will also provide these new tools to its members.

Hewitt Associates, a leading human resources services company, building on its more than 20 years of health care experience and innovation, will contribute its deep expertise of employers' strategies and objectives for improving employee health outcomes. In addition, Hewitt has a unique perspective on employees' health care enrollment decision-making through its observations of millions of enrollment transactions. Hewitt will promote and distribute the products to its clients, enabling them to help their employees become better educated health care consumers and ultimately make more informed health care enrollment and utilization decisions.

Exante Financial Services is one of the largest providers of health savings accounts in America and a leader in simplifying health care transactions. Exante and the other financial institutions that are expected to join this effort will provide consumers with the same type of seamless integration they experience with Quicken.

The Need to Understand Health Care Costs

Health care costs have been climbing for decades, reaching $1.87 trillion in the United States in 2004, according to a February 2006 report issued by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That number is expected to reach $4 trillion by 2015, its growth far outpacing that of inflation.

Employers are reacting to this rapid cost increase by adopting consumer-driven health plans, which will significantly expand the need for information and decision-making support for consumers. These new products and services will enable employers to realize the full promise of consumer-driven benefits beyond cost savings to true consumer empowerment.

"As consumers assume increasing financial risk for the health services they use, access to consumer-friendly information about medical cost, quality and outcome will be a competitive market differentiator," according to an October 2005 Gartner, Inc. report titled "Predicts 2006: Healthcare Payers Must Tap IT to Support CDHP Demand," by Robert H. Booz and others.

The companies are inviting other industry participants to join the program.