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Health Hero Network Receives National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Certification for Chronic Care Programs
Health Hero Network Continues to Expand Disease Management Portfolio with 10 Certified Health Buddy® Programs

Redwood City, Calif. – October 17, 2006 – Health Hero Network, a leading innovator of technology solutions for chronic care management, announced today that it has received certification from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for 10 of its Health Buddy® health management programs. NCQA certification indicates that Health Hero Network’s Health Buddy® Programs have passed rigorous reviews for their quality in implementing evidence-based practice guidelines for patient education and care management. These programs are delivered via the Health Buddy System, which serves as the interface between patients at home and care providers, facilitating patient education and monitoring of chronic conditions.

NCQA DM certification standards are intended to help organizations achieve the highest level of performance possible, reduce patient risk, and create an environment of continuous improvement. Health Hero Network received certifications in program design for six new areas of care and re-certifications in four previously recognized areas of care. The Health Buddy Programs newly certified by NCQA include asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, depression and pediatric asthma. The company earned NCQA certification in 2004 for its chronic heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and hypertension programs.

“Disease management offers tremendous promise for improving the care received by the chronically ill,” said Margaret E. O’Kane, NCQA President. By achieving NCQA DM Certification, Health Hero Network demonstrated that it provides specific services that fulfill that promise and vision of better care management.”

Health Buddy Programs consist of interactive scripted content that has been written by clinicians based on standard practice guidelines. The Health Buddy System delivers these programs to patients to educate, enhance medication compliance and guide behavior in support of the doctor’s treatment plan and lifestyle recommendations.

“Our Health Buddy Programs are a key component of the Health Buddy System,” said Julie Cheitlin Cherry, Medical Director at Health Hero Network. “We are proud to be the first enabling technology company to have received NCQA program certification as it validates our commitment to bring quality care management programs to our customers through our proven Health Buddy System.”

About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations, recognizes physicians and physician groups in key clinical areas and manages the evolution of HEDIS, the tool the nation’s health plans use to measure and report on their performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. For more information, visit http://www.ncqa.org

About Health Hero Network
Health Hero Network develops and markets the Health Buddy® system for health improvement. The Health Buddy system serves as the interface between patients at home and care providers, facilitating patient education and monitoring of chronic conditions. The system includes monitoring technologies, clinical information databases, Internet-enabled decision support tools, health management programs and content development tools. Through increased communication, behavior modification, and prevention, the Health Buddy system improves the quality of care. Based in Redwood City, California, Health Hero Network’s systems are protected by 57 issued US patents. http://www.healthhero.com