Thomson Medstat Presents Annual Innovator Award to Texas Health Plan

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas Honored for Provider Evaluation Initiative that Improves Healthcare Costs and Quality

Ann Arbor, Mich., 04/26/2006, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, a division of Health Care Service Corporation, is being honored for its innovative use of healthcare data analytics to achieve significant business results. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas has received the third annual Innovator Award from Thomson Medstat, a healthcare information business and part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). The award was presented at Connection 2006, the annual Medstat customer conference, which is underway in Phoenix, Ariz.

The winning project created a clinically based methodology for comparing the cost of care delivered by physicians and other healthcare professionals in its statewide Preferred Provider Organization network.

“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is honored to receive recognition for our efforts to manage the cost of healthcare while maintaining high quality,” said Dr. William Taylor, regional medical director, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas. “This initiative resulted in a more affordable network of providers who deliver quality healthcare — good news for employers and the people of Texas.”

“The Medstat Innovator Award program honors organizations that tackle the challenges facing the healthcare system with creative, scientifically sound solutions,” said Carol Diephuis, executive vice president of Thomson Medstat. “Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas has demonstrated that the most powerful solutions balance the needs of organizations that provide healthcare and those that pay for healthcare.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas was selected from a field of six Innovator Award finalists. The other finalists and their nominated projects are as follows:

• Alcoa, Inc., the world’s leading producer of aluminum, used medical claims data to educate employees about their healthcare utilization history, enabling them to make better choices when they selected health benefits.

• The Program Integrity Unit of the Georgia Department of Community Health dramatically increased its financial recoveries in fraud, waste, abuse, and overpayment cases through data analysis and organizational process changes.

• Keystone Mercy Health Plan, a Pennsylvania Medicaid HMO, adopted proactive case management which uses prospective risk scores to identify high-risk beneficiaries and manage their chronic conditions.

• Liberty Mutual, a diversified global insurer, developed a tool that transforms raw medical, indemnity, and claims information into business intelligence that policyholders can use to lower workers’ compensation costs without compromising the quality of care.

• The Office of Retirement Services of the Michigan Department of Management and Budget analyzed prescription drug use and expenses for its Medicare-age population and identified two Medicare Part D options that will avoid millions of dollars in costs.

The Thomson Corporation and Thomson Medstat
The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com), with 2005 revenues of $8.70 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate e-learning and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson has approximately 40,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries. The Corporation’s common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). Medstat (www.medstat.com) is a Thomson healthcare business that provides market intelligence and benchmark databases, decision support solutions, and research services for managing the cost and quality of healthcare. Medstat applies these capabilities to improve policy and management decision making for employers, government agencies, health plans, hospitals and provider networks, and pharmaceutical companies.

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