Our use of innovative Web technologies allows us to serve our members, employer customers, physicians, hospitals and brokers better than ever. Investments in www.anthem.com continue to bring enhanced customer service, in-depth personalized health information and access to discounts on health-related products and services to our members.

A program introduced in Virginia in 2003 gives Anthem members easy, convenient online access to information that helps them better understand numerous medical conditions, compare how hospitals perform in the delivery of more than 100 medical treatments and procedures and patient safety information. This program, the Subimo Healthcare Advisor™, will be made available nationwide during 2004. It integrates information from a variety of objective sources and makes it readily accessible in a user-friendly format.

In response to the needs of an important and growing group of members, Anthem offers MiSalud@Anthem, a Spanish-language health and wellness Web site specifically designed to assist Spanish-speaking Anthem members. The site includes news, benefit information, health and wellness information and a directory of physicians in Anthem’s networks.

Innovative use of technology has helped us move toward our goal of providing distinctive customer service. Anthem receives about 475,000 claims every day, and approximately 76 percent are processed electronically at a cost of 14 cents per claim. By contrast, it costs $2.50 each to process paper claims. In addition to being less expensive, technology allows us to process claims faster and more accurately. We receive about 25,000 Internet inquiries and 75,000 telephone calls daily. About a quarter of those phone calls come through our interactive voice response telephone system, which provides members with information quickly and conveniently in one call.

Other online service capabilities are making it easier for customers to administer employee benefits, enroll new members and reduce the paperwork involved in providing their employees with comprehensive health benefits. Insurance brokers benefit from online quotes and applications, which have dramatically cut the time needed to enroll a new employer group. Members can readily see details of their benefits and claims and conveniently order Anthem membership cards.

Through innovation, we’re also improving service to physicians and hospitals by eliminating paperwork and simplifying access to patient eligibility and benefit information, claims payment status, hospital admission information and precertification. An innovative program in Maine—the Integrated Provider Operating Model—is aimed at ensuring that hospitals’ questions are answered more quickly and claims are processed more efficiently.

In Virginia, our Point of Care program handled more than 2.7 million electronic transactions from physicians’ offices in 2003, up from 2 million in 2002. This year, we began offering secure online self-service tools for physicians, hospitals and other health care professionals in Kentucky and Indiana and will soon make similar services available in Ohio. Anthem Prescription Management—our pharmacy benefit management company—now offers physicians easy access to its drug formulary from their hand-held personal computers or desktop computers, giving them another convenient way to help improve the quality, safety and cost of health care for Anthem members.