Ziegler Makes Investment in Healthplace America™

11/6/2008 - Ziegler News Release

Ziegler Makes Investment in Healthplace America™

Chicago – November 6, 2008 – Ziegler HealthVest Management, LLC – a venture capital fund investing in early- to middle-stage healthcare support services, healthcare IT and wellness – is pleased to announce it has invested in Healthplace America™, an innovative new specialty referral network product designed as an addition to existing health plans.

Healthplace America is the first and only business to design and implement a surgery benefit management solution for health plans, enabling high-quality medical providers throughout the U.S. to compete to attract patients on the basis of quality measures, convenience and price. By providing all the administrative, case management, travel and logistics services, Healthplace America connects health plans with world-class facilities and highly-trained medical professionals across the U.S. The company offers institutional healthcare buyers access to medical facilities on a fixed- rate pricing basis, eliminating the cost and complexity of billing and claims adjudication and delivering significant savings as compared to prevailing negotiated costs of U.S. providers. The company’s innovative model has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. “Healthplace America allows patients the convenience to travel domestically to receive excellent quality care with little to no out-of-pocket expense as well as significant reduction in employer or insurer cost. Ziegler’s HealthVest investment will help us reach health plans with our solution, delivering significant cost savings for the plan while opening access to some of the best care in the nation for plan members,” notes Ken Erickson, founder and chief executive officer of Healthplace America.

“Healthplace America offers benefit and increased efficiency to three groups that are sometimes at odds with one another – patients that want the best care possible, employers that require low-cost health insurance for their workforce, and medical professionals hoping to capture more business. We are pleased to help Healthplace America develop synergies and improve efficiency among these groups,” stated Keith Henthorne, managing director of Ziegler HealthVest Fund.

Ziegler HealthVest will hold two seats on Healthplace America’s Board of Directors.

About Healthplace America™:

Healthplace America was organized to provide cost and quality management for the $700 billion surgery industry that until now has remained generally unmanaged. Healthplace America offers the Healthplace Benefit TM, a surgery benefit management solution that supplements health plans with top-quality hospitals and doctors who offer low, fixed-rate pricing to attract patients from outside their area. The Healthplace Benefit connects health plan members with premier providers via personalized concierge service which makes it practical and desirable for members to travel for excellent medical care. As a result, significant savings are passed along to health plan sponsors and members.

The Healthplace Benefit covers many high-value medical procedures, including coronary artery bypass, orthopedic and spine surgery at highly rated medical centers of excellence throughout the United States. These providers and facilities meet specific standards for participation based on training, experience, and demonstrated quality of care at an attractive price point. Healthplace Benefit hospitals and physicians offer substantial savings based on revolutionary fixed-rate pricing. This eliminates the variability of fee-for-service charges and offers greater transparency and consumer choice while delivering significant savings for healthcare payers.

Members of the Healthplace Benefit have access to detailed quality metrics compiled by HealthGrades TM, an independent rating service. With this information, they can compare hospitals in the Healthplace Benefit with their local providers and make informed healthcare decisions. If they choose the Healthplace Benefit, experienced care support representatives provide concierge level services that assist the member through the entire surgery process, including the collection of necessary medical records, procedure scheduling, travel and lodging reservations and post procedure follow-up.

The Healthplace Benefit easily integrates with existing medical benefit plans, expanding the medical choices available to plan members while offering greater control over healthcare expenditures both for plan sponsors and members.

Healthplace America is based in suburban Chicago. Learn more by visiting www.healthplaceamerica.com or call toll-free 1-877-858-0123.

Certain comments in this news release represent forward-looking statements made pursuant to the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, in particular, the overall financial health of the securities industry, the strength of the healthcare sector of the U.S. economy.