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Prescription Pathway (sm) increases PDP Formulary to include BiDil (r)

Category: Your Medicare Plan Coverage
Published: Jan, 26 2007 03:01:03


On January 22, 2007, Prescription Pathway (sm) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), New England Conference announced in a press release that all three of the Prescription Pathway prescription drug plans (Bronze, Gold, and Platinum) will now include coverage of BiDil (r) - a prescription medication that is being used for the treatment of heart failure in African Americans.

The press release noted:

'BiDil, the fixed-dose combination of isosorbide dinitrate/hydralazine, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2005 as an adjunct therapy for African Americans with heart failure to improve mortality, to reduce hospitalizations and to improve patient functional status.

"We congratulate Prescription Pathway on making BiDil accessible to patients and their families,” said Juan Cofield, President, New England Area Conference of the NAACP. “Cardiovascular disease disproportionately affects African Americans, and access to this medicine will help to alleviate the burden of this disease.”

BiDil is available on all three plans offered by Prescription Pathway. For Bronze plan members, the co-payment is 25% of the retail cost, for Gold plan members the co-pay is $37, and for Platinum plan members the co-pay is $31 [emphasis added - online ed.].

“We are honored to partner with the NAACP to offer affordable co-pays on BiDil for our members,” said Gary W. Bryant, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Universal American Financial Corp. “We know that health disparities are a complex problem in America, and we are committed to serving the entire community with the highest quality products and services. Together with the NAACP, we recognize the breakthrough that BiDil represents, and we want to make sure it is accessible to its intended patients, African Americans with heart failure.”

About Prescription PathwaySM
Prescription Pathway, the nation’s seventh largest Medicare Part D prescription drug plan with over 445,000 members, offers prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries in 48 states of the continental U.S. Prescription Pathway is offered by insurance subsidiaries of Universal American Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:UHCO), a specialty health and life insurance holding company, in a strategic alliance with PharmaCare Management Services, Inc., a pharmacy benefits manager that is a wholly owned subsidiary of CVS Corporation (NYSE: CVS). As part of the strategic alliance, Universal American and PharmaCare formed Part D Management Services, LLC, which is 50% owned by each of Universal American and PharmaCare. Part D Management Services principally performs marketing and risk management services for Prescription Pathway. Additional information on Prescription Pathway can be found at www.rxpathway.com.

About NAACP-New England Area Conference
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Working to erode health disparities is a major initiative of the NAACP. The New England Area Conference is the governing and coordinating entity for NAACP Branches, Youth Councils and College Chapters in the states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. For more information,
please visit www.NAACP.org.

* * *

Certain matters discussed in this news release and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the entities discussed herein (including, but not limited to, statements regarding the Prescription Pathway drug plan, including estimates of membership, costs, revenues and plan and formulary offerings) may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Federal securities laws. Although such parties believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forwardlooking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Many of these factors are beyond the parties’ abilities to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact Prescription Pathway and the statements contained in this news release can be found in Universal American's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and annual reports on Form 10-K. For forward-looking statements in this news release, the entities referenced herein, including Universal American, claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The entities referenced herein, including Universal American, assume no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

#### #### ####

CONTACT:
Part D Management Services
Sarah Bell, Vice President, Marketing
(914) 934-5200 ext. 353
sbell@uafc.com

OR

NAACP- New England Area Conference
Juan M. Cofield, President
(617) 325-7580
Jmcofield@aol.com







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