HealthRamp Announces Medicare E-Prescribing Rule Compliance Status

HealthRamp Announces Medicare E-Prescribing Rule Compliance Status

Compliance Preparedness Combined With an OIG Advisory Opinion Request Positions HealthRamp for the Government's Accelerated Electronic Prescribing Plans

NEW YORK, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ramp Corporation (AMEX:RCO) today announced that its HealthRamp subsidiary is prepared to meet the requirements of the recently accelerated delivery and compliance deadline for the federal government's electronic prescribing rules. HealthRamp develops and markets the CarePoint and CareGiver technology suites. CarePoint enables electronic prescribing, lab orders and results, Internet-based communication, data integration, and transaction processing over a handheld device or browser, at the point-of-care. CareGiver is a comprehensive solution for the long term care industry that allows facility staff to easily place orders for drugs, treatments and supplies from a wireless handheld PDA or desktop Internet web browser.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced its plans to publish the initial Medicare electronic prescribing standards by the end of 2004. This is one year earlier than the original September 2005 deadline established by Congress under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) which assures that these standards will be in place for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit (Medicare Part D) that commences in 2006. The accelerated schedule for implementing these standards is part of the federal government's plan to encourage the national adoption of electronic health records within the next 10 years.

Among the standard practices being developed by HHS and the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS), and for which HealthRamp has implemented today, are:

* Utilizing the National Council of Prescription Drug Program's (NCPDP)
SCRIPT message standards for exchange of new prescriptions, changes,
renewals, cancellations and fill status messages

* Using of the Health Level Seven (HL7) standards when communicating
clinical orders within practices and hospitals

* Making use of RxHub's Formulary, benefit and medication history
information exchange messages with the intent to make this the basis
for an NCPDP standard

* Employing the Accredited Standards Committee's (ASC) X12N 270/271
message formats to communicate benefits data



Some standard practices either not yet available or seldom utilized, but under review by HHS and NCVHS, are:

* Evolving to have the RxNorm clinical drug terminology, which was
developed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), used by
e-prescribing systems to represent the clinical drug

* Having the Accredited Standards Committee's (ASC) X12N 278 message
format assist with the prescription drug prior authorization process

* Adopting the National Provider Identifier (NPI) number and NCPDP's
HCIdea identifier to uniquely identify all prescribers and dispensing
entities



In addition to HealthRamp's diligence on standards compliance, Ramp has requested a formal advisory opinion from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The OIG advisory opinion request will yield clarity regarding the federal government's new "safe harbor" provision required by the MMA, and being developed by HHS, to allow for nonmonetary remuneration for physicians who implement electronic prescribing. The OIG advisory opinion, which will only apply to HealthRamp, will yield certainty concerning the scope of electronic prescribing functionality, equipment and services which can be supplied to physicians by specific healthcare industry constituents. HealthRamp expects to receive the formal opinion from the OIG within the 1st quarter of 2005.

"Federal standards for electronic prescribing and related electronic health record technologies are a decided positive for our future business prospects. Proliferation of enabling technologies, at the point-of-care, will be dramatically facilitated by these initiatives. Our OIG advisory opinion would also help drive adoption of technologies by physician, as the cost of attaining and deploying such technologies would be supported by health care industry participants," stated Andrew Brown, Ramp CEO and President.

Ramp Corporation, through its wholly owned HealthRamp subsidiary, markets the CarePoint technology suite. CarePoint enables electronic prescribing, lab orders and results, Internet-based communication, data integration, and transaction processing over a handheld device or browser, at the point-of- care. HealthRamp's products enable communication of high value-added healthcare information among physician offices, pharmacies, hospitals, pharmacy benefit managers, health management organizations, pharmaceutical companies and health insurance companies. Additional information about Ramp, and its products and services, can be found at www.Ramp.com.

Safe Harbor Statement: To the extent that any statements made in this press release contain information that is not historical, these statements are essentially forward-looking. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "expects," "plans," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the ability of the Company to raise capital to finance the development of its Internet services and related software, the effectiveness, profitability and the marketability of those services, the ability of the Company to protect its proprietary information and to retain and expand its user base, the establishment of an efficient corporate operating structure as the Company grows and, other risks detailed from time-to-time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements.


Source: Ramp Corporation

CONTACT: Andrew Brown of Ramp Corporation, +1-212-440-1548

Web site: http://www.ramp.com/


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