News Flash

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Names Chet Burrell New President and CEO

RealMed Executive Selected after 10-Month Nationwide Search

OWINGS MILLS, MD (September 28, 2007) – The CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) Board of Directors today announced the selection of Chester (Chet) Burrell, a health care executive with more than 25 years’ of public and private sector health care experience, as the Company’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. In taking over the top job at the Mid-Atlantic region’s largest health care insurer, Burrell will step down from his current position as Chairman and CEO of Indianapolis-based RealMed Corporation, which provides online claims processing services for health care payers and providers.

Michael R. Merson, Board Chair of CareFirst, Inc., the holding company for the two Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates serving Maryland and the National Capital Area, said Burrell was the unanimous selection of the Board. He also announced that until Burrell assumes his new duties on December 1, 2007, David D. Wolf, would continue serving additional duties as CareFirst’s Interim President and CEO and remain with the company thereafter in his previous role as Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Corporate Development.

“We conducted a nationwide search and interviewed many excellent candidates, both internally and externally,” Merson explained. “Chet Burrell brings impressive strengths to CareFirst. In addition to serving as a senior executive at several Blues Plans, he founded his own managed care technology and consulting company, and he has led one of the nation’s top health claims processing companies.”

Merson noted that the Board was seeking someone with a strong technology background to guide implementation of a Long-Range Strategic Plan that envisions significant investments in new systems and technologies to further improve service and give subscribers greater control over their health care coverage and costs. Implementation of these improvements is a key element of efforts to improve service to members and providers and maintaining the company’s strong position in the regional market.

Merson also noted Burrell’s strong commitment to the community over the course of his career. “Chet recognizes the critical importance of positioning CareFirst as not only a leader in providing affordable and quality services and products to our customers, but also by being an active and engaged leader in promoting and supporting the health and well being of the entire community and actively participating in the process of developing policies that best address the challenge of providing access to all health care for all,” he said.

Burrell, a resident of Washington, D.C., has led RealMed Corporation since 2002. The company processes more than $15 billion in claims annually for more than 20,000 physician groups and hospitals as well as insurers, including CareFirst. Prior to joining RealMed, he founded and was Chairman and CEO of Novalis Corporation before it was acquired by the TriZetto Group in 1999. From its conception, Burrell built Novalis into a cutting-edge managed care technology and consulting company serving more than 800,000 subscribers.

The company partnered with large, regionally based managed care networks of health care providers and leading academic medical centers, enabling them to offer their own managed care plans. He also was Board Chairman of the first of these regional networks, Preferred Health Network (PHN), a managed care health plan that served the Baltimore-Washington region and was later acquired by CareFirst.

Prior to Novalis, Burrell was Executive Vice President of Anthem Health Plans, where he directed the company’s managed care operating subsidiaries. Before joining Anthem, he served as President of the Albany Division of Empire BlueCross BlueShield, which at the time was the nation’s largest non-profit health insurer. He also served as President and CEO of Blue Cross of Northeastern New York, which served about 800,000 subscribers in upstate New York.

In addition to his private sector health care experience, Burrell also served in the public sector in New York State, where he held various senior positions, including Executive Deputy Commissioner for the state’s Office of Mental Health; Deputy Director for the Office of Health Systems Management, the state's health regulatory agency; and New York State Governor’s Staff, Division of the Budget.

Burrell has a Bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College, in Meadville, PA, and a Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of Albany, in Albany, NY. He and his wife live in Washington, D.C.

In its 71st year of service, CareFirst, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit health care company which, through its affiliates and subsidiaries, offers a comprehensive portfolio of health insurance products and administrative services to 3.2 million individuals and groups in Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia and Maryland. Through its CareFirst Commitment initiative and other public mission activities, CareFirst supports efforts to increase the accessibility, affordability, safety and quality of health care throughout its market areas.