QMed, Inc., Comments on Medicare Reform Opportunity EATONTOWN, N.J., Dec. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- QMed, Inc., today commented on the landmark Medicare Reform legislation passed by Congress and shortly to be signed by President George W. Bush. In addition to a much discussed prescription drug benefit, it incorporates numerous important features that have major significance for the Company and its shareholders, including mandating a large new disease management demonstration. Michael W. Cox, QMed president and CEO, said, "The new Medicare law improves fundamental aspects of this largest program in American healthcare. It also presents QMed with a tremendous opportunity to realize the growth that we have planned for, for more than three years. We will obviously bid on the new demonstration, but the significance and potential of this critical reform are many times that of demonstrations alone." "We developed a comprehensive Medicare strategy and were selected to participate in the first two disease management demonstrations. We await the award announcement for the Capitated Disease Management Demonstration, which is expected shortly," he continued. "The two awards already granted will more than double our revenues from their current level, while underlining our clear industry lead in this important national program. While we have not had a chance to evaluate each aspect of the new legislation, what we have seen, is very encouraging for our future. We believe that it should yield solid growth for years to come as the requirement for evidence-based medicine becomes ever more of an imperative for Medicare's medical efficacy and financial efficiency and as the need for 'baby boomer' options expands." "A couple of examples will illustrate the opportunity that reform offers to QMed beyond the newly mandated demonstration: * First, managed Medicare programs will benefit from a new financial model that increases payments for enrolling sicker patients. QMed specializes in the cardiovascular diseases, by far the largest Medicare expenditure. That expenditure will accelerate as the Medicare population surges with the baby boomers. Consequently, managed Medicare will grow again among Health Plans and our prospects to expand with existing clients and to sell to new clients are excellent. * Second, we are optimistic that Medicare will ultimately adopt as a covered benefit those disease management interventions that have been rigorously tested in randomized trials, such as the two projects in which we currently participate. One expects that these results would have to demonstrate not only cost effectiveness but also substantial physician engagement and adherence to 21st Century evidence-based medicine. Such interventions would then become available to all beneficiaries. This is a partial summary of what we see and what we see leaves us feeling very good," he concluded. About QMed, Inc. QMed, Inc., provides coordinated disease management services to patients and physicians through its health plan customers around the country. The Company has been selected in two Medicare Demonstrations to test the feasibility of reimbursing its care coordinated DM services in the vast Medicare fee-for-service program. In addition, QMed is the largest DM service provider to Medicare managed care plans. More information on QMed, Inc. can be obtained at http://www.qmedinc.com/, by calling (732) 544-5544 or by emailing . DATASOURCE: QMed, Inc. CONTACT: Robert Mosby, QMed, Inc., +1-732-544-5544, ext. 1007 Web site: http://www.qmedinc.com/

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