HealthMarkets Announces Partnership With SHPS

HealthMarkets begins rolling out SHPS Carewise® Health Services to its PPO plan members

North Richland Hills, Texas – January 14, 2009 – HealthMarkets, Inc., (http://www.healthmarkets.com) announced today that its health insurance subsidiaries have begun rolling out Carewise® Utilization Management to their PPO plan members. Carewise is provided through a contractual relationship between the HealthMarkets® insurance subsidiaries and SHPS, a leader in health improvement and health benefits solutions for health insurance providers.

HealthMarkets is the brand name for health insurance products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc., located in North Richland Hills, TX. Products provided under the HealthMarkets brand are designed to provide personalized health protection to individuals, families, the self-employed and small businesses.

"We are excited about the benefits that our partnership with SHPS will provide to our members. HealthMarkets and SHPS share the same philosophy of the need for members to receive timely information, personalized guidance through a complex healthcare system and appropriate medical care," said Phillip J. Hildebrand, the President and Chief Executive Officer of HealthMarkets, Inc. "By working together, we can assist our members early in the process and provide a positive and simplified health insurance experience when they need care."

Through their multi-year agreement with SHPS, the HealthMarkets insurance subsidiaries make available expert clinical guidance to their members regarding specific health issues. Case management is available to all plan members who have a high level of clinical risk and are in need of nurse counseling for more than 40 unique health conditions, including diabetes and coronary artery disease.

HealthMarkets rolled out the Carewise Utilization Management service to approximately 32,000 PPO plan members in IA, IN, MI, SC, TN, OK, ID, FL, AR, NH, VA and IL on January 1, 2009. HealthMarkets expects that the new service will be fully implemented by May of 2009 and will be utilized by approximately 95,000 members.