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CCH Partners with GMS to Offer CHEC™ Powered by FACIS® – A Health Care Screening Solution

(RIVERWOODS, ILL. and ALEXANDRIA, VA., August 15, 2006) – CCH, a leading provider of health law information and software, has formed a strategic alliance with Government Management Services, Inc. (GMS), to offer health care organizations a web-based method of screening individuals and entities for sanctions and adverse actions. The CCH Comprehensive Health Care Exclusion Check™ (CHEC) powered by FACIS® is an Internet tool that allows health care providers access to over 800 state and federal databases to help ensure their employees and vendors have not been excluded from participating in the Medicare/Medicaid programs. CCH is part of the Wolters Kluwer Law & Business group (health.cch.com).

The CCH Comprehensive Health Care Exclusion Check helps users avoid the monetary and civil litigation risks – associated with fines and penalties – of hiring or working with sanctioned and excluded individuals or organizations. Whether the goal is to meet minimal federal requirements or to conduct an extensive federal and state search on every new hire, existing employee and all vendors, CHEC does the job easily and efficiently.

“We’re very pleased to offer our health care customers a one-stop solution for screening sanctioned and excluded individuals and entities powered by the leader in the field, FACIS from Government Management Services,” said Paul Gibson, vice president, Wolters Kluwer Law and Business. “This service is the perfect fit with our other workflow tools that CCH has developed to help health care providers with their compliance and reimbursement needs.”

“With CCH, we now have a partner with an unsurpassed reputation for authoritative information in the health care field, and we are thrilled to be able to offer our FACIS solution to CCH subscribers,” said John O'Shaughnessy, president of GMS.

Choice of Search Options

Offered on a subscription basis, CCH’s CHEC offers the choice of basic and premium searches, with both single-search and batch-search methods.

A basic search utilizes sanction information as taken by the OIG, the GSA and other federal agencies. The information reported in this level meets the government’s minimum requirements for sanction screening as set forth in the OIG’s Compliance Program Guidance.

A premium search gives users the ability to uncover disciplinary actions taken by federal agencies as well as those taken by licensing and certification agencies in all 50 states, tapping into over 550,000 records that search for everything from exclusions and debarments to probation and letters of reprimand.

Additionally, the single search option allows the user to screen on a case-by-case basis, while the batch search method is convenient for conducting a large number of searches for 100 or more individuals or entities.

For More Information

For more information or to order the CCH Comprehensive Health Care Exclusion Check powered by FACIS, call 1-888-224-7377 (1-888-CCH-REPS) to speak with a sales representative or visit health.cch.com.

About GMS and FACIS

Government Management Services, Inc. (GMS) was founded to assist healthcare industry personnel search a single database containing information on healthcare individuals and entities that have been excluded from federal healthcare programs as well as adverse actions taken by licensing boards of State governments. The database GMS created for this purpose is called the Fraud and Abuse Control Information System (FACIS).

FACIS was designed to assist CFOs, CCOs, Risk Managers, Human Resources and Medical Staffing Services Personnel in precluding employment of an excluded individual or entity where reimbursement is sought from any federal health care program.

About Wolters Kluwer Law & Business

Wolters Kluwer Law & Business is a leading provider of research products and software solutions in key specialty areas for legal and business professionals, as well as casebooks and study aids for law students. Its major product lines include Aspen Publishers, CCH, Kluwer Law International and Loislaw. Its markets include law firms, law schools, corporate counsel and professionals requiring legal and compliance information. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, a unit of Wolters Kluwer, is based in New York City and Riverwoods, Ill.

Wolters Kluwer is a leading multinational publisher and information services company. The company's core markets are spread across the health, corporate services, finance, tax, accounting, law, regulatory and education sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2005) of €3.4 billion, employs approximately 18,400 people worldwide and maintains operations across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Its shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices.

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