We have been working diligently to reach a settlement with Anthem about claims payment and reimbursement. Negotiations have continued under the threat of a termination that was to occur on Friday, November 7, 2008. By late Friday, sufficient progress had been made toward a settlement of the dispute that SSFHS agreed to rescind the termination. An SSFHS/Anthem joint press release was distributed later that evening, but was not picked up by many of the media outlets over the weekend.

This means there is NO THREAT of termination of the Anthem agreements with any and all of the SSFHS facilities, employed physicians, or other ancillary services. SSFHS and Anthem will continue to work toward resolution of the payment and reimbursement issues, but SSFHS will continue to participate in Anthem's commercial health plan products while working toward a new written agreement.