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AlohaCare Battles Skewed RFP For Hawaii Medicaid Contract

March 18, 2008, Honolulu, Hawaii - AlohaCare, a nonprofit health plan dedicated to serving some of Hawaii's most vulnerable
populations, announced today that its bid protest over the award of a $1.5 billion Medicaid contract was rejected by State's
Department of Human Services Director Lillian Koller.

The rejection of AlohaCare's protest was received late Wednesday, March 12, 2008. Koller made no public announcement of her
decision.

The three-year contract would provide services to Hawaii's Aged, Blind and Disabled (ABD) Medicaid beneficiaries. On February 1,
2008, the state awarded the contract to two large, mainland, for-profit health plans: Wellcare Healthplans, Inc., and UnitedHealth
Group. AlohaCare filed its notice of bid protest on February 8, 2008.

In its bid protest, AlohaCare raised concerns that the Request

for Proposal (RFP) for the contract was skewed to benefit large,
for-profit, out-of-state health plans at the expense of nonprofit
Hawaii plans like AlohaCare. Among other matters, AlohaCare alleged that DHS created an illegal rebate of the 4.265 % premium
tax required to be paid by for-profit health plans. It is expected that this reimbursement to Wellcare and United Health Group for
premium taxes will add more than $65 million to Medicaid costs over the course of the three-year contract. AlohaCare also alleged
that the State's Request for Proposals (RFP) process violated both state and federal law related to the Medicaid program.

The RFP in question, entitled "QUEST Expanded Access (QExA)

Managed Care Plans to Cover Eligible Individuals who are Aged, Blind or Disabled," sought bids for one of the largest contracts
ever awarded by the State of Hawaii, worth more than $500 million per year over three years.

Ed Kemper, attorney for AlohaCare said: "We are greatly

disappointed by the State's persistent refusal to confront and correct illegal and discriminatory problems with this $1.5 billion
Medicaid contract. We believe the bid process was intentionally skewed to introduce large, mainland health plans into our island
communities at all costs."

Kemper continued: "This inherently flawed bidding process does a grave disservice to the affected 37,000 Medicaid beneficiaries,
their physicians, and to all of the people of Hawaii -- who in the end will be making up the $21 million tax revenue that the State will
annually rebate to these mainland for-profit companies."

Wellcare and UnitedHealth have each had considerable legal

problems in the recent past. Wellcare, a $3.76 billion company based in Tampa, Florida, was raided by more than 200 FBI agents
and other government officials in October 2007, over issues related to alleged billing fraud, including Medicaid billing. In January
2008, all of Wellcare's top executives – including Wellcare's CEO and General Counsel – resigned.

UnitedHealth is the second largest health plan in the nation,

with more than $76 billion in revenue in 2007. In January, the State of California announced investigations of UnitedHealth's
subsidiary PacifiCare for improper claim denials threatening potential fines up to $1.33 billion. In February, the New York State
Attorney General sued a subsidiary of UnitedHealth plan for improperly calculating payments for out-of-network services.

Both UnitedHealth and Wellcare were two of seven national health plans that agreed to suspend all Medicare marketing this past
summer after being cited by regulators for failure to comply with Medicare marketing guidelines.

In annual revenue, Wellcare is more than two times larger than Hawaii's dominate Blue Cross/Blue Shied plan, HMSA, while
UnitedHealth is forty-seven times larger than HMSA.

"We are currently weighing our legal options," Mr. Kemper said, "but it is clear that this battle has only begun."

"We feel obligated to question the State's actions in order to

ensure that this significant contract can be awarded in a manner that is fair, just and -- most importantly --- in the best interest of

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Hawaii's citizens."

###
FROM: ALOHACARE
1357 KAPIOLANI BLVD, SUITE 1250
HONULULU, HI 96814

CONTACT: THE PR CONSULTING GROUP

(212) 683-8100
Jim Haggerty, ext. 224; cell (917) 453-1510
Rachel Serlin, ext. 222; cell (609) 923-5930

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALOHACARE'S BID PROTEST OVER $1.5 BILLION MEDICAID CONTRACT REJECTED BY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN
SERVICES
Contract was awarded to two large, for-profit health plans with
limited Hawaii experience; AlohaCare believes skewed RFP favored mainland health companies

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