eHealth Participates in Award to Power ‘Florida Health Choices’ Online Marketplace, Announces Launch of eHealth Government Systems

Ceridian Exchange Systems LLC and eHealth, Inc. Partner to Help State Establish Small Business Health Insurance Marketplace

 

Sam Gibbs Named President of New eHealth Business Unit

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – (November 16, 2010) – Today eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH), parent company of eHealthInsurance (www.ehealthinsurance.com), announced its participation in a winning bid with Ceridian Exchange Systems LLC to create and power the state-sponsored Florida Health Choices online health insurance marketplace.  The purpose of the new marketplace is to expand opportunities for small businesses and employees in Florida to compare multiple health insurance products and enroll in the health plan best suited to their needs and budget.

 

eHealth also announced the creation of a new business unit, eHealth Government Systems, to provide state and federal governments with the technology solutions required for the creation and implementation of new government-run health insurance exchanges.  eHealth senior vice president Sam Gibbs has been appointed president of the new business unit. Gibbs has been with the company since 2000.

 

eHealth participated with Ceridian in the winning bid for the ‘Florida Health Choices’ contract.  eHealth plans to provide the technology platform and software infrastructure for the new online marketplace’s employer registration and employee utilization portals.  Over the course of the past twelve years, eHealth has pioneered online health insurance comparison and enrollment platforms that have helped insure over 2 million Americans nationwide.  The company also provides its award-winning technology to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, as well as leading health insurance carriers, agents and brokers, supporting a broad range of online health insurance comparison and e-commerce operations.

 

The Florida Health Choices program was established in 2008 to remove barriers between employees who want health care and the providers who can offer it. The program is designed to allow small businesses to direct their employees to Florida Health Choices' customized portal to compare and purchase affordable health care insurance, and avoid the complexities and administrative burdens typically associated with selecting and purchasing traditional health coverage. More information on Florida Health Choices can be found at http://myfloridachoices.org.

 

“We are proud of our winning bid with Ceridian Exchange Systems to establish and power the ‘Florida Health Choices’ insurance marketplace,” said Sam Gibbs, president eHealth’s Government Systems Group.  “We look forward to providing small businesses and employees in Florida with a consumer-friendly comparison and shopping experience to help them find the affordable coverage options they need.” 

 

“Through the creation of our new Government Systems business unit, eHealth is signaling its intention to aggressively pursue new opportunities from a wide variety of government customers,” continued Gibbs.  “As state governments plan for the introduction of consumer health insurance exchanges, or roll out other innovative programs like Florida’s, they will need proven, efficient technology solutions allowing them to focus on enrolling the tens of millions of uninsured Americans.”

 

eHealth Government Systems provides software solutions that facilitate the establishment of Web portals for federal and state-based insurance exchanges with consumer-friendly interfaces to existing government programs as well as individual, family and small business health insurance products.  eHealth’s technology can be applied for both front-end functionality such as comparison shopping and online enrollment and back-end functionality for data integration and other business processes. eHealth’s solutions range from prebuilt software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms that are quick and easy to implement, to the back-end connectivity and process integration needed to build online distribution systems.  All of eHealth’s products are based on the proven architecture of eHealthInsurance, the first and the largest national online resource for individual and small-group medical insurance.

 

 

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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, www.eHealthInsurance.com, consumers can get quotes from leading health insurance carriers, compare plans side by side, and apply for and purchase health insurance. eHealthInsurance offers thousands of health plans underwritten by more than 180 of the nation's leading health insurance companies. eHealthInsurance is licensed to sell health insurance in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, making it the ideal model of a successful, high-functioning health insurance exchange. Through its eCommerce On-Demand solution (www.eHealth.com/eOD), eHealth is also a leading provider of on-demand e-commerce software. eHealth's eOD platform provides a suite of hosted solutions that enable health plan providers and resellers to market and distribute products online. eHealth, Inc. also provides powerful online and pharmacy-based tools to help seniors navigate Medicare health insurance options and choose the right plan through its wholly-owned subsidiary, PlanPrescriber.com (http://www.planprescriber.com).

 

Ceridian Exchange Services is a subsidiary of Ceridian Corporation, a provider of state exchange services, health care benefits, wellness program administration, compliance management and tax-filing services. Ceridian is the nation's largest provider of COBRA administration services and the second-largest provider of payroll services in the U.S. For information on Ceridian Exchange Services, visit www.ceridian.com/exchange.

 

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding services to be provided in connection with the contract for the “Florida Health Choices” insurance marketplace, the consumer experience on such marketplace, and the ability of the marketplace to help consumers find affordable coverage options, and the need of state governments for certain technology solutions.  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 the implementation of the technology platform; the attractiveness of the platform as a source of health insurance; user experience on the platform; eHealth’s ability to finalize its relationship with Ceridian; the performance, reliability and availability of the platform and underlying network infrastructure; system failures, malfunctions, bugs or capacity constraints; ecommerce security risks; partner system failure or process breakdown; impact of healthcare reform; 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 www.ehealthinsurance.com and on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at 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.