WellPoint Appoints Harlan Levine as Executive Vice President of Comprehensive Health Solutions

INDIANAPOLIS, June 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP) today announced the appointment of Harlan Levine, M.D., as executive vice president of Comprehensive Health Solutions. In this role, Dr. Levine will lead thousands of dedicated nurses, physicians and clinicians in achieving the company's objective to improve the quality of health care while making it more affordable for the 34 million members in its affiliated health plans.

Levine will be responsible for clinical program development, provider engagement and contracting, quality and outcome evaluation, care management, pharmacy management with Express Scripts, and the work of WellPoint's outcomes-based research subsidiary, HealthCore. Levine, who will join the company July 25, will report directly to WellPoint Chair, President and CEO Angela Braly.

"Harlan brings an invaluable combination of business and clinical experience to WellPoint, making him uniquely suited to help lead our company into the future," said Braly. "As a physician who began his career practicing internal medicine, he has first-hand experience with patients and their doctors which enables him to understand their needs."

Levine comes to WellPoint from Towers Watson, a leading global professional services company, where he served as a national practice leader for the firm's health management business. During his tenure at Towers Watson, he re-focused the intellectual assets of the practice to align with the needs of a post-health care reform market, and guided the development of the firm's strategies for price transparency initiatives, provider contracting and supporting hospital clients to pursue Accountable Care Organizations.

Prior to Towers Watson, Levine worked for several national health care organizations in a variety of leadership roles, including as chief medical officer of UnitedHealth Group's Optum Care Solutions. He also was a regional medical director at PacifiCare Health Systems and an executive at Adesso Healthcare Technology Services and Salick Health Care. His extensive health management expertise includes medical management, disease management, wellness and health promotion, and change management. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and earned his M.D. from the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine.

About WellPoint, Inc.

WellPoint works to simplify the connection between Health, Care and Value. We help to improve the health of our members and our communities, and provide greater value to our customers and shareholders. WellPoint is the nation's largest health benefits company in terms of medical membership, with 34 million members in its affiliated health plans, and a total of more than 70 million individuals served through its subsidiaries. As an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, WellPoint serves members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service areas, WellPoint does business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Empire Blue Cross (in the New York service areas). WellPoint also serves customers throughout the country as UniCare. Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com.

SOURCE WellPoint, Inc.