Zix Corporation to Participate in $29 Million Highmark e-Prescribing/eHealth Initiative

DALLAS, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Zix Corporation (ZixCorp(R)), (Nasdaq: ZIXI), the leader in hosted services for email encryption and e-prescribing, today announced its participation in Highmark's e-Prescribing/eHealth Initiative, where the Pennsylvania-based health plan is contributing $29 million to help physicians acquire e-prescribing technology for their practices.

Highmark's leading-edge initiative was announced in June in the Pennsylvania marketplace to introduce e-Prescribing/eHealth technology to eligible physicians. Highmark will pay up to 75 percent of the cost for a physician's office to acquire, install and implement eligible e-prescribing systems, up to a maximum $7,000 per physician. Highmark is once again demonstrating its stature and vision in the industry by being one of the first health plans to support a meaningful e-prescribing implementation since the introduction of the recent Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA). This new legislation recognizes the positive impact of e-prescribing on patient safety and the cost of healthcare and provides meaningful incentives to physicians to begin using e-prescribing by January 1, 2009. These incentives are critical to the adoption and on-going usage of e-prescribing but do not address the upfront cost of technology acquisition and implementation. Highmark's e-Prescribing/eHealth Initiative addresses this last remaining obstacle and, as a result, physicians, patients and employers in Pennsylvania will benefit due to accelerated use of this life-saving technology.

"Highmark's HIT Grant Program, which provides funding for the purchase of e-prescribing technology that meets the functionality as set forth by MIPPA, recognizes ZixCorp as an e-prescribing leader. We are now moving into the execution phase of this project and will begin to improve quality, save money and save lives in Pennsylvania," said Augusta Kairys, vice-president of provider relations for Highmark.

"This Highmark initiative shows a powerful understanding of the need for health plan leadership as a key to unlocking the value of e-prescribing," said Rick Spurr, chief executive officer for ZixCorp. "Physicians want better tools to provide better care but do not generally have the time or technical expertise necessary to research, select and implement new technology, particularly in smaller practices. Highmark sees the need to step in and facilitate the transition and adoption by providing the necessary upfront funding. ZixCorp's high-touch, turnkey approach tailored specifically to smaller practices is ideal for this type of comprehensive program. We install the necessary wireless infrastructure in the physician's office, securely extract and load the necessary patient data into the system and provide both a handheld PDA for ease of use as the doctor visits patients throughout the office and a desktop solution typically used by the physician's staff for renewal processing. All of this is included in our approach and is packaged with onsite training and ongoing live support."

ZixCorp's PocketScript(R) e-prescribing service enables physicians to order prescriptions through a secure wireless mobile PDA or secure Web site and deliver them electronically to the patient's preferred pharmacy. Mobility enables PocketScript to provide clinical decision support at the point-of-care with real-time access to a drug reference guide as well as patient-level eligibility, formulary, and co-pay information to aid the prescriber in selecting the most cost-effective prescription based on the patient's benefits. The application also provides comprehensive drug-to-drug and drug-to-allergy interaction alerts based on patient-specific dispensed drug history. Through our partnership with SureScripts/RxHub, PocketScript delivers end-to-end connectivity within the healthcare system to reduce unnecessary costs, improve patient safety and convenience, and enhance practice efficiency.

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