eHealth Technology Platform Powers Online Health Insurance Sales for LifeWise Health Plans
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 6, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- eHealth, Inc. (Nasdaq: EHTH), parent company of eHealthInsurance, the nation's leading online source of health insurance for individuals, families and small businesses, and LifeWise Health Plans of Washington, Oregon and Arizona announced today the significant results of the LifeWise plans' use of eHealth's innovative technology.
In 2006, the LifeWise plans contracted with eHealth to use its technology platform. The platform allows individuals and families to compare LifeWise health plans and apply for coverage online using electronic signature and payment. The platform powers LifeWise direct sales as well as referrals from LifeWise agents, who use the platform to complete and submit their customers' applications online.
"The partnership with the LifeWise plans is a significant building block towards our mission to be the technology standard for the health insurance industry," said Gary Lauer, Chief Executive Officer at eHealth, Inc. "Our technology provides insurance companies with a proven platform that offers a scalable and secure solution to increase carrier direct sales and support distribution through their agent network."
"We went live with eHealth's technology between April and July 2006. In less than a year, online sales for individual and family plans have grown to 40% of total sales," said Heyward Donigan, Chair of the Board for all three LifeWise companies. "We are pleased by the widespread adoption of the eHealth platform by our agents and the positive feedback we have received from them about the platform.
"Over time, we expect to realize significant savings through reduced postage, printing and fulfillment costs and through reduced turnaround time for each application," said Donigan. "Our goal is 24-hour turnaround on applications that don't require medical records. We're making good progress; our turnaround time is significantly improved from the 10 to 14 days we averaged before online sales."
eHealth's e-commerce platform simplifies and streamlines the complex and traditionally paper-intensive sales and purchasing process. The proprietary technology includes instant access to online health insurance quotes, the ability to compare benefits from several health plans side-by-side and features such as Plan Recommendation, Physician Search and Consumer Reviews. The platform also features e-signature, e-payment and integration with health carrier systems to enable consumers to complete the entire application process online.
"The consumer-friendly approach of eHealth's platform is consistent with the direction that we are headed with the design of our health plans," said Donigan. "In each of our markets, we're offering consumer-friendly plans that emphasize wellness through upfront coverage for preventive office visits and screenings."
About eHealth, Inc.
eHealth, Inc. (Nasdaq: EHTH) is the parent company of eHealthInsurance, the nation's leading online source of health insurance for individuals, families and small businesses. Through the company's website, http://www.ehealthinsurance.com, consumers can get quotes from leading health insurance carriers, compare plans side-by-side, apply for and purchase health insurance. eHealthInsurance offers more than 7,000 health plans underwritten by more than 160 of the nation's leading health insurance companies. eHealthInsurance sells health insurance in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. eHealthInsurance and eHealth are registered trademarks of eHealthInsurance Services, Inc.
About LifeWise Health Plans
LifeWise Health Plan of Arizona, LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon and LifeWise Health Plan of Washington are members of a family of companies headquartered in Washington state, with operations in Mountlake Terrace and Spokane, Washington; Portland and Bend, Oregon; Anchorage, Alaska; and Scottsdale and Tucson, Arizona. LifeWise and its affiliates employ more than 3,300 people and provide health care coverage and related services to about 1.6 million subscribers and their families.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding LifeWise's expectation to realize significant savings and reduced turnaround time and eHealth's scalable and secure solution increasing carrier direct sales and supporting distribution. These forward-looking statements are inherently subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made, including risks associated with adoption of eHealth's technology and the products included on eHealth's platform, system failures, malfunctions, bugs or capacity constraints, the performance, reliability and availability of eHealth's ecommerce platform and underlying network infrastructure, ecommerce security risks, insurance carrier resource allocation, carrier system failures or process breakdown, compliance with insurance and other laws and regulations and changes in laws and regulations. Other factors that could cause results to differ are described in eHealth's most recent periodic report as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the investor relations page of eHealth's website at http://www.ehealthinsurance.com and on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov. eHealth does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in expectations.
eHealth Contacts: Karen Auby, Office: (650) 210-3186, Mobile: (408) 460-8769, karen.auby@ehealth.com, or Sande Drew, Office: (650) 210-3107, Mobile: (916) 207-7674, sande.drew@ehealth.com; or LifeWise Contacts: Mark Stuart, Office: (425) 918-3297, Mobile: (425) 931-7379, mark.stuart@premera.com, or Scott Forslund, Office: (425) 918-5070, Mobile: (425) 280-1653, scott.forslund@premera.com
http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/
SOURCE eHealth, Inc.