Press Release

Press Information

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
18 May 2004

BlueShield of Northeastern New York Call Centers Recognized for Commitment to Excellent Customer Service

Latham, New York — BlueShield of Northeastern New York's commitment to outstanding Customer Service has led to the re-certification of the COPC-2000® Standard for its Community Blue and Traditional Blue member and provider call centers in Latham.

The COPC Standard was developed in 1995 by individuals from Microsoft, Motorola, Dell, American Express, Compaq, L.L. Bean, Intel, Novell, and other customer-focused companies who were concerned with the level of service quality provided by Customer Service Providers. Today, several hundred locations in 30 countries are using the Standard to improve performance, reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction.

Pauline Cataldi, Vice President of Customer Service and Claims Operations for BlueShield, states "The real value of the COPC certification process is how much better we are as an organization in the services we provide to our customers. Through our commitment to the COPC-2000® Standard we have changed, streamlined or implemented performance improvement processes that improve customer satisfaction while increasing our return on investment."

One of the key drivers to Customer Satisfaction has been determined to be First Call Resolution, allowing for member concerns to be addressed and resolved in a single phone call. Through the use of the COPC standard, significant improvements were made. First Call Resolution improved by 12% since 2001. Customer Satisfaction grew significantly in both markets as well, 11% since 2001.

"BlueShield continues to assess the value of its customer contact centers and the benefits gained by implementing COPC best practices that span the entire organization. The results are not just in the data, but in dollars saved and the improved level of customer satisfaction", states Peter Bloom, President & Co-founder of COPC.

Working within the COPC-2000® Standard, several of BlueShield's processes have been identified as "best in class — worldwide". Process improvements have been documented in Supplier Management, Forecasting and Scheduling, Coaching and Monitoring, and HIPAA Privacy Guideline Adherence. COPC has become a part of the BlueShield culture, from employee satisfaction teams to empowering Customer Service Representatives in the decision-making process and their participation in policy and procedure teams.

For BlueShield, the COPC standard addresses every aspect of a top-notch customer contact center, including time to answer and accuracy of calls, customer satisfaction, costs, and on-the-job supervision. Added Cataldi, "COPC has improved overall operational performance. We continually work towards improving our service to our members as they are our first priority."

About COPC

Headquartered in Amherst, New York, Customer Operations Performance Center, Inc. (COPC) is the leading authority on customer contact center operations. COPC is authorized to issue certification to the COPC-2000® Standard, a comprehensive operations performance standard that specifies minimum operational requirements in critical functional areas. COPC services clients on a worldwide basis, and has representatives in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States.

For additional information about COPC Inc., please email to info@copc.com.

About BlueShield

BlueShield of Northeastern New York is a division of one of New York's leading healthcare companies. We take pride in our leadership role in providing quality health care and innovative solutions for the nearly 771,000 members in Upstate New York. The Company's 2003 revenues grew 16% to $1.77 billion.