Sun Microsystems Unveils New Composite Application to Help Healthcare Providers Meet Their HIPAA National Provider ID Requirement

SOA-based Services Offering Protects Legacy System Investment While Providing Critical New Functionality

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- December 5, 2005 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW), the creator and leading advocate of Java technology, today announced the availability of iProvider Global Identifier, Sun’s newest composite application-based services offering targeted for the healthcare industry. The iProvider Global Identifier, based on Sun’s Java Integration Suite (formerly the SeeBeyond ICAN Suite), helps to enable the integration and intelligent matching of multiple provider identification numbers, stored in various formats and spread across disparate healthcare application systems, to a common industry standard format.

Currently, healthcare providers routinely bill under a variety of names and identifiers not generally known to their patients, making validation and verification of services difficult and inefficient. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) recognized the need for a unique identifier for individuals as an essential component of administrative simplification. Being able to identify physicians uniquely is critical to both the delivery and the administration of health care services. The identifier, known as the National Provider Index (NPI), is a unique health identification number that will be assigned to healthcare providers to simplify communication between providers and health plans, and to help reduce the potential for fraud and abuse. This 10-digit identifier, which is sanctioned by state and federal law as a part of HIPAA, will replace all other forms of identifiers for healthcare providers, including the Unique Physician Identification Number, Medicaid Provider Number, Medicare Provider Number and others. The NPI format compliance deadline is currently set for May 23, 2007.

The Sun solution will play a key role in helping healthcare customers to simplify electronic transmission of health-related standard transactions while helping them meet their HIPAA requirements in a cost-conscious and timely manner. “iProvider Global Identifier showcases the value of composite application technology in transforming existing IT investments into responsive business solutions, in this case, to help reduce fraud and abuse, while improving communications across the industry,” added Wayne Owens, vice president, Healthcare Integration Platforms, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun’s iProvider Global Identifier solution aims to assist customers in reducing complexity in the health system by creating a single, secure source of provider contact details for the accurate and scalable mapping of multiple provider IDs into a single NPI. This application helps to provide timely and up-to-date contact information to enable fast, accurate electronic communication between providers, thereby streamlining claim and healthcare delivery processes and improving clinical communications and decision making.

Additionally, the iProvider Global Identifier helps healthcare customers facilitate electronic referrals, electronic provider notification distribution and automated health alerts from Health Departments to providers for outbreaks and epidemics. The iProvider Global Identifier can help health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, hospitals, nursing homes, clinical laboratories, pharmacies, physicians, dentists and nurses address today’s technology needs.

To learn more about the iProvider Global Identifier, interested parties are invited to view the co-presented Healthcare Informatics and Sun Microsystems webinar, “National Provider Identifier - From Burden to Best Practices” on December 6, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. EST. For more information, please visit www.healthcare-informatics.com/webinars/12_06_05.htm

About Sun Java Integration Suite

The Sun Java Integration Suite, formerly the SeeBeyond Integrated Composite Application Network Suite (SeeBeyond ICAN Suite) is now the sixth suite in the Sun Java Enterprise System (Java ES). The new technology suite is a result of Sun’s recent acquisition of SeeBeyond in the U.S.. With nearly 1 million Java ES subscribers to date, the addition of the Sun Java Integration Suite will build upon Java ES’s success and position it as one of the most complete software platforms for building Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), Web services and composite applications. For more information on the Java Enterprise System and its suites, please visit: http://www.sun.com/software/javaenterprisesystem.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

A singular vision -- “The Network Is The Computer” -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world’s most important markets. Sun’s philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

As part of a mutual agreement between the two companies, Sun Microsystems Inc. acquired the shares of SeeBeyond Technology Corp. on August 25, 2005. With this acquisition, SeeBeyond is welcomed into the Sun Microsystems, Inc. family of companies (“Sun”). The goal is to minimize disruption to the current business and to maximize benefits for customers and employees of both Sun and SeeBeyond Technology Corp. Over the next months both companies will strive to reach full integration globally. Due to relevant country legal requirements, different timelines for completing that full integration may apply.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Java, Solaris, iProvider Global Identifier, Sun Java Integration Suite, Sun Java Enterprise Systems and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Contact Information

Kristi Rawlinson

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Contact via E-mail