Press Room

CHICAGO, IL.—October 22, 2001—The Technology Group of Spherion® Corporation and the Center for Research in Information Management (CRIM) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) today announced the formation of a research alliance to create an e-Health panel and annual forum of healthcare providers, payers, associations, shared services, research and academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies to help better understand, implement and utilize new trends and technologies in the industry.

The creation of the forum comes in response to the sweeping changes that will be taking place in the healthcare industry over the next several years. Regulatory controls are now being put forth through the passing of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). One of the purposes of this public law is to safeguard Protected Health Information and to reduce overall healthcare expenses by lowering the cost of administrative and financial transactions through the adoption of new operational, technology and electronic standards. To comply with the new operational, technology and privacy standards set forth by HIPAA, healthcare companies must implement the Electronic Standardization regulations by October 16, 2002, and the Privacy regulations by April 14, 2003.

"With the standardization deadline a little over a year away, companies must begin to take immediate action to ensure the proper procedural and technological implementation of new HIPAA standards," said Wayne Mincey, president of the Technology Business Solutions Group of Spherion. "By teaming with CRIM at the University of Illinois at Chicago and reaching out to healthcare companies in our community, we will help them meet the requirements of HIPAA and ultimately reduce costs and ensure privacy for healthcare administration."

A recent Gartner Group, Inc. study revealed that 85 percent of healthcare providers are not yet prepared to meet the upcoming HIPAA deadline. According to the Gartner study, 54 percent of providers have either not asked software vendors for remediation strategies or have not received a solution from those vendors. In addition, 84 percent of these companies expect these software vendors to "supply compliance" through existing maintenance contracts.

"Electronic interaction is still in the early stage of adoption in the healthcare industry. Many of the companies we have spoken to have still not taken the steps to comply with the new HIPAA standards and seem quite unaware of the enormous expense and time considerations," said Arkalgud Ramaprasad, director of CRIM at UIC. "The collaboration between UIC with its long history of wide-ranging interests in healthcare and the experience of the Technology Group of Spherion will produce a blue print of best practices to provide healthcare companies with the most relevant information and useful technological approaches to these upcoming healthcare regulatory issues."

Spherion, UIC and CRIM are currently assembling a panel of stakeholders in the e-Health transformation that includes healthcare providers, payers, associations, shared services, research and academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Stakeholders will be involved in research projects and surveys to provide definitions and solutions to e-Health issues and topics.

In addition to the stakeholder research, Spherion will provide information and technology solutions for companies that desire to use external consulting support to upgrade procedures and technology. All information gathered through the e-Health surveys and stakeholder research will be presented at an annual e-Health forum and subsequently published in electronic and paper journals. The first forum is on track for a Spring 2002 launch.

About the University of Illinois at Chicago

The Center for Research and Information Management (CRIM), part of the UIC College of Business Administration, partners with business and government organizations to advance research and education in the use of information technology. CRIM supports research in the management and use of information resources, with emphasis on the strategic use of information. It serves as a center for disseminating information on developments in information technology to the business community. An advisory board composed of Chicago-based information management executives supports CRIM. For more information about CRIM, go to http://www.uic.edu/cba/crim.

About Spherion

For more than 30 years, the Technology Group of Spherion has offered a comprehensive suite of enterprise-class technology solutions that help clients solve critical business challenges, realize business value and leverage and retain current infrastructure. Clients choose from full lifecycle solutions to project support and staff augmentation. The Technology Group's skilled IT professionals are qualified subject matter experts with the business knowledge and technical expertise needed to implement world-class enterprise application integration, information design, software quality management and vertical industry solutions. Visit our Web site at www.spherion.com/technology.

Spherion Corporation provides Recruitment, Outsourcing and Technology services. Founded in 1946, with operations in North America , Europe and Asia Pacific, Spherion helps companies efficiently plan, acquire and optimize talent to improve their bottom line. Visit the Company's Web site at www.spherion.com.