Mark L. Wagar was recently appointed Senior Vice President of Sales for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield.

As an executive and veteran of both public for-profit, and not-for-profit healthcare organizations, Mark delivers more than 30 years of knowledge in both managed care and healthcare provider settings. His managed care experience includes both large and small group business on a fully insured or ASO funded basis.

Mark played a key role in developing the PPO network concepts popular today in partnership with large business coalition group customers and union trusts. He also ran network operations for AmiCare health plans nationwide. In the early 1990's, he was president of CIGNA's West Coast healthcare operations, and later served in various executive positions at Caremark. Most recently, Mark served as chairman and CEO of radiology services provider Radiologix, Inc. and as an advisor to various smaller healthcare services and device companies.

Mark has both undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Ohio State University, where he played on a nationally ranked Big Ten champion basketball team in 1971.

We welcome Mark to Empire and look forward to the experience and leadership he will bring to the Empire sales team.

Beginning January 2005, Empire will offer new consumer directed healthcare (CDHC) products designed to lower premiums for employers and involve consumers more directly in their healthcare cost decisions. Empire has named this product suite Empire Total Blue^sm.

Empire Total Blue will include high-deductible plans and a choice of funding arrangements for the consumer directed expenditures. Products for insured groups are subject to regulatory approval.

Empire Total Blue will be offered with Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). These products will extend the range of options for lowering total healthcare costs.

The various consumer funding arrangements that can accompany consumer directed health plans enable an employer and/or an employee to make an annual allocation to a health account for participating employees to pay for routine medical and pharmaceutical expenses. Depending on the funding arrangement, the dollars remaining at the end of the year can be rolled over for future healthcare needs.

New products include the following:

• Flexible insurance plans designed on Empire's proven PPO platform, including high-deductible designs that meet HSA regulatory requirements.
• A variety of funding arrangements, including our HSA, HRA and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options.
• Preventive-care services are covered at 100%, rather than being subject to deductibles or coinsurance payments. This can promote wellness by ensuring coverage for preventive-care services.
• Innovative health-services programs to support employees' transition to becoming more engaged health consumers.

Empire Total Blue will be offered to insured groups with more than 50 employees on January 1, 2005, subject to regulatory approval. If your group has fewer than 51 employees and will be renewing sometime in the first half of 2005, call your Empire representative to discuss Empire's Total Blue plan options for small groups.

Empire has engaged Lumenos, Inc., a leader in developing consumer tools for directed healthcare plans, to provide administrative support for the Empire Total Blue product line.

Beginning mid-November, Empire has made big improvements to Broker Online Services.
We are committed to helping you manage your accounts and facilitate your sales process. Empire offers online services 24/7, tailored just for you. And now there are two new features:

1. Online Renewals
View and submit your upcoming group renewals online. You can now modify existing product designs or run quotes for new products.

2. Multi-Region Quoting
Simplify your efforts by creating only one HMO or POS quote for a group with employees residing in more than one of our five rating regions.

Plus don't forget all the things you can do at Broker Online Services:

• Presales support
• Create and review quotes (groups 2–50)
• Create and review proposals (groups 2–50)
• Download product information and benefit summaries
• Account enrollment
• Enroll groups (groups 2–50)
• Download enrollment forms (groups (2–50)
• Group administration (for groups with 2 or more eligible employees)
• Add, change or terminate members
• View and update employee and dependent contact information
• Request new ID cards and print temporary ones

Broker Online Services are only a click away. You can receive online assistance and of course you can always contact your Empire representative for more information.

Beginning November 1, 2004, Empire will automatically implement new vision riders for all HMO, Direct POS and DirectShare^sm POS small groups (2–50 employees) as well as all large group products (51+ employees) with vision rider coverage. For eligible groups, the change to the vision policy will occur on the next renewal date on or after November 1, 2004. You do not have to take any action regarding this change. Groups will receive a copy of their new vision rider at renewal.

The new rider adds an additional preventive benefit—namely, the Dilated Fundus Evaluation (DFE). This highly effective five-minute eye test can detect and assess the signs of diseases of the eye and many other diseases throughout the body before symptoms develop. Early detection of an eye disease or other condition is an important part of preventive care and can help minimize treatment costs.

If your groups have a Medium or High Vision plan, your groups will also enjoy additional benefits such as coverage for disposable contact lenses and allowances for non-plan frames and lenses.

For more information on the vision rider changes or to find out how to add one of Empire's vision care plans, call Broker Relations or call your account service representative.