American Specialty Health Wins Eleven Web Awards, Including Best E-Commerce Site for Healthyroads.com

San Diego, CA (August 21, 2003) -- American Specialty Health, Incorporated, the nation's leading complementary health care organization, and its subsidiary Healthyroads, Inc. recently received eleven awards from the Spring 2003 World Wide Web Health Awards, including Best E-Commerce Site.

In addition to the prestigious honor of being named the Best E-Commerce Site, Healthyroads.com won four gold awards in the areas of Health Promotion/Disease & Injury Prevention and Patient Education. American Specialty Health garnered six bronze awards for ashcompanies.com in two categories: Advertising/Marketing and Miscellaneous/Professional.

"We are thrilled to win Best E-Commerce Site–in addition to the other awards," says George DeVries, president and chief executive officer of American Specialty Health, "Healthyroads was built to offer educational information, quality products, and unique interactive tools to help individuals maintain healthy lifestyles. This national recognition is the culmination of years of careful planning and execution."

Close to 300 health plans, public agencies, and private companies participated in the Spring 2003 World Wide Web Health Awards. Entrants were evaluated by a panel of 31 judges on a scale of 1 to 100 for content, creativity, and innovation. Winning sites received gold, silver, bronze, and merit certificates. Now in its 10th year, the award program recognizes sites that help consumers make healthy choices, prevent disease, cope with chronic health conditions, and access reliable information.

Healthyroads, Inc. received the following awards for healthyroads.com:

• Best E-Commerce Site


• Gold Award - Health Promotion/Disease & Injury Prevention: Business (Private Sector) more than 50 employees


• Gold Award - Health Promotion/Disease & Injury Prevention: Education


• Gold Award - Patient Education Information: Business (Private Sector) more than 50 employees


• Gold Award - Patient Education Information: Education

American Specialty Health received the following awards for ashcompanies.com:

• Bronze Award - Advertising/Marketing: HMO/Managed Care System


• Bronze Award - Advertising/Marketing: Insurance Company


• Bronze Award - Advertising/Marketing: Business (Private Sector) more than 50 employees


• Bronze Award - Miscellaneous/Professional: Business (Private Sector) more than 50 employees


• Bronze Award - Miscellaneous/Professional: HMO/Managed Care System


• Bronze Award - Miscellaneous/Professional: Insurance Company

A comprehensive list of the winners can be found on www.healthawards.com.

American Specialty Health, Incorporated is the nation's leading specialty benefits organization for complementary health care–providing benefit, health education, and affinity network programs to health plans, insurance carriers, employer groups, and trust funds nationwide. Healthyroads, Inc., a subsidiary of American Specialty Health, is an integrated health education company that helps individuals achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles. Based in San Diego, American Specialty Health has over 500 employees and more than 9 million members in benefit programs nationwide. For more information, visit www.ashcompanies.com or healthyroads.com.