Health Benefits Direct and Access Plans USA Announce Launch of Insurint Platform With AHCP, a Leading U.S. Health Insurance Agency for Independent Agents
17 01 08 - 14:30
RADNOR, Pa. and IRVING, Texas, Jan. 17, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Health Benefits Direct Corporation (OTCBB:HBDT) and Access Plans USA, Inc. (Nasdaq:AUSA) today announced a two-year agreement between their respective subsidiaries, Insurint Corporation and America's Health Care/Rx Plan Agency, Inc. ("AHCP"). Under this agreement, Insurint Corporation will make available its software-as-a-service (SaaS) Insurint quoting technology platform to AHCP agents who enroll in the program.
Insurint Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Health Benefits Direct Corporation, a leading technology innovator in the direct marketing and distribution of a wide range of health and life insurance and related products for individuals and families. AHCP, a subsidiary of Access Plans, is one of the nation's leading independent health insurance agencies. AHCP's agent network submitted $65,000,000 in new annualized major medical premium in 2007.
Insurint is a proprietary, professional-grade, web-based agent portal that aggregates real-time quotes and underwriting information from multiple highly-rated carriers of health and life insurance and related products. Unlike existing health insurance quote engines, Insurint also enables an agent to input responses to a set of questions about the health of proposed insureds to place an insurance policy faster and more accurately. In addition, Insurint offers a suite of sales tools that agents can use to increase their overall sales production.
The parties anticipate the launch of the Insurint platform offering to AHCP's sales agents will occur during the second calendar quarter of 2008. Insurint will provide AHCP agents who enroll in the program with a platform and a work flow engine that spans the full range of health care products, from major medical insurance, to hospital insurance plans, to guaranteed issue limited benefit plans, as well as supplemental life and health products. In addition, AHCP will provide back-office support for its agents utilizing the system and will work to recruit additional agents to the Insurint platform.
"We welcome America's Health Care/RX Plan Agency as Insurint's first partner," said Health Benefits Direct Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alvin H. Clemens. "Insurint's portal enables agents to view and share detailed comparisons of multiple types of products, policy brochures and other useful information instantly. This results in a highly competitive application-processing platform for both agents and consumers."
"Our new relationship with Insurint Corporation brings tremendous opportunities to our organization," said Ian R. Stuart, President and CEO of Access Plans. "We have established AHCP as the marketing organization of choice for health insurance agents who want to be at the leading edge of technology and sales efficiency. Insurint is the next generation of premier marketing tools and represents AHCP's continued commitment to innovation."
Michael K. Owens, Jr., President of AHCP, said, "Our utilization of Insurint puts AHCP's agents at the front of the pack. Agents will have access to web-based technology for a number of functions including quoting premiums and submitting insurance applications. AHCP also will continue to provide its agents with competitive commission advances and lead credit programs together with premier agency support services and sales conventions for top producers. With the added flexibility of the Insurint platform, our agents will be able to provide better service and offer more coverage options to their clients and generate sales more efficiently."
"AHCP agents will be better able to target the 47 million uninsured Americans, which represent an especially attractive market to our company, as Access Plans' other subsidiaries develop and distribute health programs specifically for this market," added Owens.
About Health Benefits Direct Corporation
Health Benefits Direct Corporation is a technologically innovative contact center based insurance agency that operates an interactive online marketplace enabling consumers to shop for, compare, and apply for health and life insurance and related products for individuals and families. Its streamlined Quick-to-Call sales platform, supported by proprietary online technology, dialing applications and tele-application voice signature process, promotes efficiency for consumers purchasing and carriers underwriting insurance products. Through its subsidiary, Insurint Corporation, Health Benefits Direct provides a proprietary, professional-grade, web-based agent quote engine portal that aggregates accurate real-time quotes from multiple highly-rated carriers of health and life insurance and related products. Insurint's user-friendly platform enables agents to view and share with proposed insureds detailed comparisons of multiple products, policy brochures and other useful information instantly, resulting in highly competitive application processing platform for agents and consumers. www.healthbenefitsdirect.com
About Access Plans USA
Access Plans USA provides access to affordable healthcare to individuals and families. Our health insurance products and our non-insurance healthcare discount programs are designed as affordable solutions for the growing number of uninsured and underinsured seeking a way to address rising healthcare costs. We also offer third party claims administration, provider network management, and utilization management services to employers and groups that choose to utilize partially self funded strategies to finance their benefit programs. We are committed to assuring that our clients have access to the healthcare that they need at prices they can afford. For more information on Access Plans USA, Inc. please visit www.accessplansusa.com
America's Health Care/Rx Plan Agency, Inc. (AHCP) is an independent national marketing organization specializing in distributing economically-priced group medical plans for individuals and small employers. AHCP's objective is to provide products that are easy to understand and that meet the health insurance needs of individuals and families at affordable prices. For agents who join its program, AHCP provides a unique support system with quick and quality service. AHCP features "webtronic" business processing -- allowing agents to increase their efficiency and enhance the service they provide to their clients. For more information on AHCP, please visit www.ameri-choice.com.
Safe Harbor Statement for Health Benefits Direct Corporation
In addition to historical facts or statements of current condition, this press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "Safe Harbor" provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the effect of the agreement to offer the Insurint platform to AHCP's agents or the anticipated launch date of this offering to AHCP agents. Forward-looking statements provide Health Benefits Direct's current expectations or forecasts of future events. Moreover, Health Benefits Direct cautions readers that forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially and which are identified from time to time in Health Benefits Direct's reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Given these risks and uncertainties, any or all of these forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect. Therefore, you should not rely on any such factors or forward-looking statements. Health Benefits Direct undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement.
Safe Harbor Statement for Access Plans USA
Certain statements included in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Certain, but not necessarily all, of such forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believes," "expects," "may," "will," or "should," or other variations thereon, and by discussions of strategies that involve risks and uncertainties. Access Plans USA, Inc.'s actual results or industry results may be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include those set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006 and each of the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed since such date. Access Plans USA undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or to make any other forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
CONTACT: The Piacente Group
Brandi Piacente
212-481-2050
brandi@thepiacentegroup.com
Access Plans USA, Inc.
Nancy Zalud, Vice President, Communications
972-915-3218
nzalud@accessplansusa.com