Quest Diagnostics Incorporated , the nation's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, and The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, the region's largest healthcare provider, today announced that ChartMaxx has been selected to automate Health Alliance's patient financial services department. ChartMaxx is the electronic health record solution developed by MedPlus®, Quest Diagnostics' healthcare information technology subsidiary.

The ChartMaxx Solution

ChartMaxx is an enterprise-wide electronic health record solution built on a document management and imaging foundation that enables healthcare organizations to enhance performance by improving patient care and maximizing business results through the efficient collection, access and use of clinical, financial and administrative information. ChartMaxx provides authorized users with immediate, concurrent access to records captured from scanned documents, interfaced documents and discrete data.

Health Alliance Focused on Financial Service Improvements for Patients

Initially, Health Alliance will use ChartMaxx to facilitate patient registration, scheduling, and patient accounting.

"We'll use ChartMaxx to eliminate non-value-added steps associated with paper intensive processes in our patient access and patient accounting departments," said Patrick McDermott, Health Alliance Vice President of Revenue Cycle Operations. "With Health Alliance serving more than one million patients per year, digitizing numerous paper workflows has the potential to improve operational efficiency, customer service, and financial outcomes."

"By making documents immediately available to our patient accounting customer service unit, patient questions can be answered in a matter of minutes, creating a patient-friendly billing environment," added McDermott. "In this way, ChartMaxx will significantly reduce the use of paper in our patient access and accounting departments and will automate our document management processes."

Ease of Integration

According to Health Alliance Senior Vice President and CIO Alex Rodriguez, "ChartMaxx was selected for its advanced functionality and compatibility with our existing infrastructure."

The ChartMaxx solution has a proven track record of smooth integration with diverse systems in hospital environments. MedPlus has developed and currently supports over 350 custom interfaces for its ChartMaxx customers, for virtually every major clinical and financial system on the market.

ChartMaxx at Work for Health Alliance

"MedPlus is pleased to put the power of ChartMaxx to work for Health Alliance and its 13,000 associates and 2,300 physicians," said Richard A. Mahoney, President, MedPlus and Vice President, Healthcare Information Solutions at Quest Diagnostics. "Our proven functionality and integration expertise is ready to improve efficiency and effectiveness throughout this large enterprise."

Upon completing the installation for Health Alliance, there will be more than 110 ChartMaxx systems in hospitals and clinics nationwide, accessed by more than 115,000 users, managing more than 250 million clinical and administrative documents.

About ChartMaxx

ChartMaxx is an enterprise-wide electronic patient record solution, which enables organizations to create and manage an electronic repository comprised of clinical, financial and administrative information. Immediate, concurrent access to information makes ChartMaxx a key component in efficient management of patient records. The solution provides the tools hospitals need to accelerate turnaround time for chart completion, introduce electronic patient registration, utilize remote coding, automate release of information and maximize electronic information access across the entire facility. ChartMaxx has been implemented in more than 100 healthcare facilities throughout the United States and Canada. For more information visit http://www.medplus.com/.

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics is the leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services that patients and doctors need to make better healthcare decisions. The company offers the broadest access to diagnostic testing services through its national network of laboratories and patient service centers, and provides interpretive consultation through its extensive medical and scientific staff. Quest Diagnostics is a pioneer in developing innovative new diagnostic tests and advanced healthcare information technology solutions that help improve patient care. Additional company information is available at: http://www.questdiagnostics.com/.

About MedPlus

MedPlus is a leading developer and integrator of clinical connectivity and data management solutions for healthcare organizations and clinicians. These solutions efficiently and securely collect, store, manage and retrieve clinical information within an organization, enterprise or community via virtual private networks and/or the Internet. MedPlus solutions include Care360™eMaxx® (physician-focused clinical integration portal solution) and ChartMaxx®. MedPlus is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated. For more information, visit the Company's Web site at http://www.medplus.com/.

About the Health Alliance

The Health Alliance is an integrated health care delivery system that includes The Christ Hospital, The University Hospital, The St. Luke Hospitals, The Jewish Hospital, The Fort Hamilton Hospital and the physicians of Alliance Primary Care. To view other Health Alliance news releases, go to http://www.health-alliance.com/pressroom.

The statements in this press release, which are not historical facts or information, may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to be materially different. Certain of these risks and uncertainties may include, but are not limited to, competitive environment, changes in government regulations, changing relationships with customers, payers, suppliers and strategic partners and other factors described in the Quest Diagnostics Incorporated 2004 Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

SOURCE: Quest Diagnostics Incorporated; Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati

CONTACT: Investors, Laure Park, +1-201-393-5030; or Media, Jennifer
Somers, +1-201-729-8386, both of Quest Diagnostics; or MedPlus, Media, Sonya
Lemmerbrock, +1-513-229-5500; or Health Alliance, Media, Mary Beth Bauer,
+1-513-585-7200

Web site: http://www.questdiagnostics.com/
http://www.medplus.com/
http://www.health-alliance.com/pressroom