KANSAS CITY, Mo. and BELLEVUE, Wash., June 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- UMB Healthcare Services, a division of UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) and drugstore.com, inc. (NASDAQ:DSCM), a leading online provider of health, beauty, vision and pharmacy products have launched a new partnership to provide the growing number of UMB Health Savings Account (HSA) holders direct access to eligible products for the tax-advantaged health plans.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070813/AQM043LOGO) UMB Healthcare's HSA accounts grew even faster than the national average last year, surpassing $100 million in assets at the end of 2007. The number of people with HSA/High Deductible Healthcare Plan (HDHP) coverage rose to 6.1 million in January 2008, a 35% increase over the previous year. In January 2007 there were 4.5 million people with HSAs and HDHPs and 3.2 million in January 2006, according to America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
"UMB Healthcare HSA accounts give customers the opportunity to take control of their healthcare dollars while also saving money," said Dennis Triplett, President of UMB Healthcare Services. "The partnership with drugstore.com provides a great customer benefit, as it offers our account holders a convenient and streamlined process for managing their health care purchases." The UMB HSA account access website provides a direct link to the customized HSA store on drugstore.com. Once there, account holders will have access to HSA-eligible products, services that automatically track purchases and provide an HSA-only receipt, and additional resources to help Consumer- Directed Healthcare Plan (CDHP) users record expenses for tax purposes. UMB HSA account holders will also receive special money-saving offers from drugstore.com.
"We're pleased to work with UMB to provide their growing number of customers the convenience of shopping in one online location with a wide selection of more than 3,000 HSA-eligible, over-the-counter products as well as prescription medications and contact lenses," said David Lonczak, vice president and chief marketing officer, drugstore.com. "Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, the online retail environment is uniquely qualified to provide a convenient solution with eligible products as well as record keeping services for HSA account holders." drugstore.com is ranked in the top 50 Internet retailers in the United States by revenue. HSA and FSA stores are available at http://www.drugstore.com/hsa and http://www.drugstore.com/fsa. In addition to shopping for over-the-counter items, customers may also purchase prescriptions from the fully licensed, U.S.-based drugstore.com(TM) pharmacy and contact lenses from http://www.visiondirect.com/, a wholly-owned subsidiary of drugstore.com and the second largest online retailer of contact lenses in the United States.
Since the inception of Medical Savings Accounts in the late 1990s, UMB Healthcare Services has been a leader in the health care marketplace. Today, UMB supports HSAs, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs). UMB Healthcare Services was the first financial partner to provide multi-purpose card technology to the health care industry and recently developed a Healthcare Line of Credit product. UMB Healthcare Services has the experience, systems backbone, investment options and client base to bring an integrated solution to the health care industry.
About UMB UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) is a multi-bank holding company headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., offering complete banking, asset management, health spending solutions and related financial services to both individual and business customers nationwide. Its banking subsidiaries own and operate 136 banking centers throughout Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Arizona. Subsidiaries of the holding company and the lead bank, UMB Bank, n.a., include an investment services group based in Milwaukee, Wis., single-purpose companies that deal with brokerage services and insurance, and registered investment advisors for proprietary mutual funds.
About drugstore.com, inc.
drugstore.com, inc. (NASDAQ:DSCM) is a leading online provider of health, beauty, vision and pharmacy products. Our portfolio of brands include: drugstore.com(TM), Beauty.com(TM) and VisionDirect.com(TM). All are accessible from http://www.drugstore.com/ and provide a convenient, private, and informative shopping experience while offering a wide assortment of more than 30,000 products at competitive prices.
The drugstore.com pharmacy is certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) as a Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site (VIPPS) and operates in compliance with federal and state laws and regulations in the United States.
Media Contacts:
Stephanie Hague Anne Marshall
UMB Financial Services Contact drugstore.com
816.960.3105 425.372.3464
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070813/AQM043LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: drugstore.com, inc.
CONTACT: Stephanie Hague of UMB Financial Services Contact, +1-816-960-3105, ; or Anne Marshall of drugstore.com, +1-425-372-3464, Web site: http://www.drugstore.com/
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