Blue Shield of California Foundation Awards $13.1 Million to Improve Patient Safety and Access to Health Care Across California

Nearly $6 Million for Major Statewide Initiative to Fight Hospital Acquired Infections; More than $6 Million Will Provide Premium Support for 8,300 Children

San Francisco, February 26, 2008 – Setting a record for its quarterly giving, Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF) today announced the award of $13.1 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and programs to improve the quality of patient care through health technology and to expand health insurance for children who do not qualify for public programs.

Nearly half of the money, $5.75 million, will be used to expand the foundation’s groundbreaking program to dramatically reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). After seeing remarkable success in its nine-hospital pilot project, BSCF will use the grant announced today to expand its innovative California Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Initiative (CHAIPI) to at least 100 hospitals.

“Hospital acquired infections put lives at risk and increase consumer costs. We want to dramatically reduce those risks by ensuring hospitals have access to innovative new technologies that help pinpoint and stop the spread of infections,” said Crystal Hayling, president and CEO of BSCF. “Given the results we saw in our test program, we expect the broad expansion of this effort to mean 4,000 fewer patients will contract an HAI in the next year, which translates into 30,000 fewer patient days in the hospital, $60 million in avoided costs to patients and hospitals, and nearly $15 million in bottom-line hospital savings.”

In California, an estimated 150,000 patients suffer from HAIs annually, 9,000 of which result in death. Through CHAIPI, participating hospitals will receive support for new technology and collaborative learning opportunities about best practices. While only not-for-profit hospitals can receive funding, this grant is unique because for-profit hospitals are invited to participate in the collaborative learning sessions and will have the opportunity to purchase the technology at a reduced price.

“We look forward to taking CHAIPI to scale because it has the potential to alleviate untold human suffering and save millions of dollars in unnecessary costs, both for patients and our healthcare system,” Hayling said.

Other health and technology grants announced today include:

$350,000 to the California Health Foundation and Trust to expand its telemedicine program by increasing the number of telemedicine providers and offering technical assistance to those in the field. Telemedicine is vital in rural, underserved areas.

$115,000 to the California Society of Thoracic Surgeons to study complications of open heart surgery, and to build a single source of clinical data on which to assess and replicate best practices to improve cardiac surgical outcomes.

$105,000 to the California Children’s Hospital Association for an initiative to reduce catheter-associated and other infections acquired in neonatal intensive care units.

Additionally, BSCF will maintain its longstanding commitment to ensuring low-income children have access to health care through one large grantmaking initiative and one grant. Those include:

Up to $6 million in grantmaking (with specific grants to be announced later this year) to fund health insurance premiums for 7,000 children, ages 6 to 18, who are currently enrolled in the Healthy Kids insurance program in 19 California counties. The funds provided by BSCF will ensure that coverage is continued for these children, who would otherwise be uninsured, through the end of this year.

$559,260 to provide subsidies for 400 new children and maintain coverage for 900 children enrolled in the CaliforniaKids program, which provides insurance for outpatient services, such as dental care and prescription drugs, for children from low-income families who are not eligible for other programs.

Finally, BSCF awarded several grants in its third program area, Blue Shield Against Violence, including:

$70,000 to VIP Community Mental Health Center in Southeast Los Angeles to expand its youth violence prevention programs, including teen-dating and domestic violence.

$50,000 to University of Maryland for an analysis of Employee Assistance Programs’ effectiveness in responding to intimate partner violence.

$50,000 to increase Helpline Youth Counseling’s capacity to respond to incidents of teen-dating and domestic violence in southeast Los Angeles County.

The grants announced today represent BSCF’s first quarterly donations for 2008. The foundation gave $29.1 million in 2007, and $27.1 million in 2006, to promote access to health care, foster improvements in quality of care through technology and end domestic violence.

Blue Shield of California Foundation is one of the largest health care grantmaking organizations in California. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.blueshieldcafoundation.org. The Foundation was formed by Blue Shield of California, a not-for-profit corporation with more than 3.2 million members, 4,300 employees and 20 offices throughout California. For more information about the company, please visit www.blueshieldca.com.