RxAmerica offers e-Prescribing

June 19, 2008

SALT LAKE CITY (June 19, 2008) – RxAmerica, a leading pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company, announced today an agreement with SureScripts to provide electronic prescribing to its prescribers and plans. SureScripts operates the largest network of electronic communications between pharmacies and physicians to allow the electronic exchange of prescription information.

“We are very excited to be working with SureScripts to provide the value of safety and efficiency to our customers and their members,” said John Gardynik, President of RxAmerica. “It has been shown that e-prescribing increases both the efficiency of plan practices and the accuracy of the prescribing process.”

According to the Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL), use of electronic prescribing systems with a network connection to pharmacy and advanced decision-support capabilities could help prevent 130,000 life-threatening medication errors annually.

By eliminating paper from the prescribing process, e-prescribing also has been proven to offer significant time savings, as removing the need for phone calls and faxes allows prescribers and their staffs more time to care for their patients.

A study by the Medical Group Management Association’s Group Practice Research Network estimated that administrative complexity related to prescriptions costs a practice approximately $15,700 a year for each full-time physician on staff – a figure that does not even take into consideration the time spent managing faxes. Multiplying that figure by an estimated 563,000 office-based physicians currently practicing and prescribing medications in the United States reveals an opportunity for e-prescribing to significantly reduce the estimated $8.8 billion worth of physician and staff time spent on the phone clarifying prescription information.

About RxAmerica

RxAmerica LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Longs Drug Stores Corporation, is a thriving pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and an expert in lowering prescription costs in a consistently inflationary environment while maintaining the health and wellbeing of members.

The company provides prescription benefits for more than eight million individuals nationally, through a retail network of more than 60,000 pharmacies and an advanced mail order facility. RxAmerica has been providing PBM services to managed-care organizations and employer groups ranging in size from 100 to more than one million members since 1989. The company is also a provider of the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan in all states plus the District of Columbia for the 2008 plan year. For further information on RxAmerica, call 1-800-770-8014 or visit RxAmerica’s Web sites at www.rxamerica.com and www.Meds4Medicare.com.

About SureScripts

Founded by the pharmacy industry in 2001, SureScripts® operates the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange™, which facilitates the secure electronic transmission of prescription information between physicians and pharmacists and provides access to lifesaving information about patients during emergencies or routine care. Working collaboratively with health plans, health systems, technology vendors and health policy leaders, SureScripts is committed to improving the safety, efficiency, and quality of the prescribing process. More information about SureScripts is available at www.surescripts.com.