Health Management Associates and Florida Blue Announce Formation of Accountable Care Arrangement

Health Management Associates, Inc. (NYSE: HMA) and Florida Blue, Florida’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield company, announced today the formation of an accountable care model to serve patients in Brevard County, Fla.

Health Management’s physicians, as well as its two hospitals in Brevard County (Wuesthoff Medical Center – Melbourne and Wuesthoff Medical Center – Rockledge) will be the provider cornerstones of this new partnership.

“This partnership with Florida Blue is designed to ensure that employers and individuals receive value through improved health and lower costs,” said Alan Levine, Senior Vice President of Health Management and President of its Florida Group of 23 hospitals. “According to the state of Florida, Wuesthoff Hospitals are the lowest cost hospitals in Brevard County. In our partnership with Florida Blue, we now seek to translate those lower costs to savings for employers and better value for consumers of health care. We are proud of the highly skilled doctors, hospitals and professionals in our network, and we welcome others who are committed to high quality, affordability and to partnerships for the improvement of health.”

“Health Management’s operational expertise and its experience as a good partner with other Florida organizations makes this collaboration an ideal relationship for Florida Blue members,” said Pat Geraghty, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Florida Blue. “Accountable care models like this reduce the fragmentation of care and provide incentives to increase care coordination, to improve patient outcomes, and to lower cost.”

The new relationship is a platform for expanded cooperation between Florida Blue and Health Management, including the potential to build a clinically integrated network among participating providers and expand insurance products offered in Brevard County, such as Medicare Advantage and self-funded and “narrow network” commercial insurance plans.

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Inc.
Florida Blue, Florida’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield company, is a leader in Florida’s health care industry. Our mission is to help people and communities achieve better health. Florida Blue has approximately 4 million health care members and serves 15.5 million people in 16 states through its affiliated companies. Florida Blue is a not-for- profit, policyholder-owned, tax-paying mutual company. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., it is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. For more information, visit www.floridablue.com.

About Health Management Associates, Inc.
Health Management enables America’s best local health care by providing the people, processes, capital and expertise necessary for its hospital and physician partners to fulfill their local missions of delivering superior health care services. Health Management, through its subsidiaries, operates 71 hospitals with approximately 11,100 licensed beds in non-urban communities located throughout the United States.

All references to “Health Management,” “HMA” or the “Company” used in this release refer to Health Management Associates, Inc. and its affiliates.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “plans,” “may,” “pending,” “continues,” “should,” “could” and other similar words. All statements addressing operating performance, events or developments that Health Management Associates, Inc. expects or anticipates will occur in the future, including but not limited to projections of revenue, provisions for doubtful accounts, income or loss, capital expenditures, debt structure, principal payments on debt, capital structure, the amount and timing of funds under the meaningful use measurement standard of various Healthcare Information Technology incentive programs, other financial items and operating statistics, statements regarding our plans and objectives for future operations, the impact of changes in observation stays, our ability to achieve process efficiencies, factors we believe may have an impact on our deductibles and co-pays, acquisitions, acquisition financing, divestitures, joint ventures, market service development and other transactions, statements of future economic performance, statements regarding our legal proceedings and other loss contingencies (including, but not limited to, the timing and estimated costs of such matters), statements regarding market risk exposures, statements regarding the effects and/or interpretations of recently enacted or future health care laws and regulations, statements regarding the potential impact of health care exchanges, statements of the beliefs or assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing statements, and statements that are other than statements of historical fact, are considered to be “forward-looking statements.”