McGAW PARK, Ill., October 1, 2002 – Allegiance Healthcare, a subsidiary of Cardinal Health, Inc., (NYSE:CAH) and a leading manufacturer and distributor of medical, surgical and laboratory supplies, is offering its customers the Continuous Pricing Accuracy™ (CPA) service, a new way to reduce pricing errors and the labor to manage them. This service is available free to all Allegiance customers.

A typical hospital receives thousands of orders per year and uses hundreds of unique product codes from numerous manufacturers resulting in multiple pricing contracts between the supplier, the distributor and itself. Among hospitals, an estimated 40% of a purchaser’s time and 68% of accounts payable time is spent on price alignment and reconciliation.

“CPA is the answer we have been looking for to reduce time spent on price alignment and accounts payable reconciliation,” said Hugh M. Abbott, Sr., director of purchasing operations at Temple University Health System in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “CPA has been a tremendous success here at Temple. It provides a service that certainly differentiates Allegiance from other distributors.”

“In today’s cost-driven environment it is essential for health-care providers to manage costs and improve productivity across all areas of their business,” said Tom Slagle, president of Allegiance Distribution. “Allegiance is dedicated to helping our customers eliminate costs from the supply chain. We are delighted to offer the advantages of the Continuous Pricing Accuracy™ service to our customers.”

CPA is a process that allows Allegiance the opportunity to review pricing discrepancies between hospital pricing files and the Allegiance price file before an invoice is sent to the customer. The only requirement of the customer is that orders must be placed through an electronic transmission. CPA offers significant benefits including substantial increase in pricing accuracy, virtual elimination of pricing discrepancies and invoice errors due to pricing and dramatic reduction of time spent by buyers researching pricing issues.

More than 300 customers are already using the Continuous Pricing Accuracy™ service from Allegiance Healthcare, with documented results of up to 30% reduction in labor associated with invoice reconciliation.

“The CPA process has enabled Catholic Healthcare West to virtually eliminate all invoice discrepancies, which has dramatically impacted the labor associated with invoice reconciliation. This allows us to focus on other supply chain costs and patient care issues,” said Keith Callahan, vice president of supply chain management and e-commerce at Catholic Healthcare West.

Through strategic management of vendor contract cycles, CPA uses integrated technology that ensures price matching prior to an order being released for invoicing. “CPA’s success is driven by a joint commitment to the program from Allegiance and our customers,” said Brian Concannon, president of Allegiance’s Northeast Region. “Our service team is committed to working with customers to reduce total supply chain costs and will assist in implementing CPA in a fast, efficient manner.”

About Cardinal Health, Inc.
Cardinal Health (www.cardinal.com) is a leading provider of products and services supporting the health-care industry. Cardinal companies develop, manufacture, package and market products for patient care; develop drug-delivery technologies; distribute pharmaceuticals, medical-surgical and laboratory supplies; and offer consulting and other services that improve quality and efficiency in health care. The Dublin, Ohio-based company employs more than 49,000 people on five continents and produces annual revenues of more than $44 billion. Cardinal Health is ranked #23 on the Fortune 500 list and was named as one of "The World's Best" companies by Forbes magazine in 2002.

Allegiance Healthcare (www.allegiance.net) is a subsidiary of Cardinal Health and a leading provider of health-care products and cost-management services needed by hospitals, laboratories and others in health care. Based in McGaw Park, Illinois, the company manufactures many of the products it markets and distributes, while others come from health and medical companies around the world. Allegiance also provides integrated services such as clinical and productivity consulting, procedure-based supply packaging, just-in-time delivery and other services to help medical professionals control costs and improve quality in patient care.