CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 5, 2006--Leaders from the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance will speak at conferences around the nation in July, with several presentations focusing on Premier's recent release of evidence that improving patient care can reduce costs and save lives.

Premier executives, including President and CEO Richard A. Norling, will also discuss the latest information from Premier's Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) project with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Norling will speak at the following events:

-- American Hospital Association Health Forum Leadership Conference: How P4P Accelerates Quality Improvement, Lessons From the Front Lines; Friday, July 14; San Francisco, CA. http://www.healthforum.com/healthforum/html/conferences/summit.

-- The Leapfrog Group and National Business Coalition on Health Incentives and Rewards (I&R) Workshop: The Market at Work, Rewards; Wednesday, July 19; Chicago, IL. http://www.nbch.org/workshop06/index.html.

-- The Health Information Technology Symposium at MIT: Pay for Performance and Health Information Technology; Thursday, July 20; Cambridge, MA. http://www.hitsymposium.com.

Premier Vice President of Clinical Informatics Denise Remus, Ph.D., R.N., will also speak at the Leapfrog Group and National Business Coalition event on Thursday, July 20, regarding the recent analysis.

According to Premier's analysis, if all pneumonia and heart bypass patients nationally had received most of a set of basic, widely accepted care measures in 2004, costs would have been as much as $1 billion lower. Other projected outcomes associated with this improved process delivery include 3,000 fewer deaths, 6,000 fewer complications, 6,000 fewer readmissions and 500,000 fewer days in the hospital.

The analysis utilized quality process indicators collected as part of Premier's HQID pay-for-performance project with CMS, the first national project of its kind. Using first-year project clinical quality data that has been audited and validated by CMS, Premier undertook additional analysis using the detailed cost and clinical data available in Premier's Perspective(TM) database, the most comprehensive clinical comparative database in the nation. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com/p4p/press.

About Premier Inc.

Premier Inc., helps hospitals accelerate performance on both clinical outcomes and supply chain costs. Premier is a healthcare alliance entirely owned by more than 200 of the nation's leading not-for-profit hospitals and healthcare systems. These organizations operate or are affiliated with nearly 1,500 hospitals and more than 38,500 other healthcare sites. Premier Purchasing Partners provides an array of services supporting health services delivery including group purchasing totaling more than $25 billion annually in supplies and equipment purchasing, as well as supply chain and clinical performance improvement services. Premier Healthcare Informatics offers performance measurement, benchmarking, and reporting products and advisory services supporting quality improvement. Premier Insurance Management Services helps hospitals manage insurance costs and improve risk management and claims capabilities. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Premier has offices in Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.

Copyright Business Wire 2006

Premier, Inc.

Premier, Inc.

Serving 1,700 hospitals and almost 45,000 other healthcare sites, Premier Inc. is the largest healthcare alliance in the United States dedicated to improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates the nation's largest healthcare purchasing network, the most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information and one of the largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups in healthcare. Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C. and Washington.

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