Mellon and NGS American Announce Health Savings Account Alliance

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J. and ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich., April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mellon Financial Corporation's Human Resources & Investor Solutions (HR&IS) business and NGS American, Inc. today announced an alliance to provide Health Savings Account (HSA) products and services to more than 350,000 members of health plans administered by NGS American.

The integrated HSA product includes financial services such as checking and debit cards to pay for qualified medical expenses, an investment account and IRS-required tax reporting, along with services such as claims administration, customer service, online tools, employee education and enrollment.

"HSAs represent a powerful new approach for addressing spiraling health care costs," said James D. Aramanda, Mellon vice chairman and head of its HR&IS business. "Creating alliances with health plan management leaders such as NGS fits our strategy of becoming the premier provider of these services." Mellon is a leading provider in HSAs, offering a complete range of services for health plans and employers, and interest-bearing, FDIC-insured accounts for individuals. Mellon's growing list of HSA alliance and administrative agreements currently reaches 130 million potential participants.

"Mellon's willingness to meet NGS' needs for flexibility as well as their outstanding reputation in the financial world led us to choose their integrated HSA product," said Kim Gunter, President of NGS American. "We wanted a provider that would support some unique web-based payment options for participants and Mellon was able to deliver this."

HSAs, which were authorized by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, are portable health savings accounts that consumers can use to pay for qualified medical expenses. The accounts are offered in conjunction with a high deductible health plan that provides security against catastrophic medical costs. Both employers and employees can contribute to HSAs -- up to $5,250 for a family and $2,650 for individuals in 2005. For employees, the pre-tax contributions will reduce their income taxes while allowing them to set aside money for their health expenses. Employees accumulate tax-free interest on their HSA balances and do not pay any taxes when using the money to pay for qualified medical expenses. Mellon offers participants with a minimum balance, the opportunity to open a separate investment account. Unused HSA balances can be carried forward from year-to- year, rolled over if the individual changes jobs or even used for post- retirement health expenses.

About NGS American, Inc.

Founded in 1979, NGS specializes in the administration of self-funded group health plans for companies whose business needs require significant flexibility. The company remains privately held by the original owner. From the beginning, NGS' vision has been to create a unique organization bringing a high level of sophistication in benefit expertise together with leading edge technology while maintaining the spirit and personable level of service of a TPA.

NGS administers self-funded plans as designed by our clients. This includes indemnity plans, PPO plans, POS plans, Consumer Driven Health Plans, HRA and HSA programs. NGS also administers dental, vision, disability and FSA programs and offers clients COBRA administration, eligibility administration and HIPAA administration.

Additional information about NGS can be found at http://www.ngsamerican.com/ .

About Mellon Financial Corporation

Mellon's Human Resources & Investor Solutions is a global human resources outsourcing, consulting and shareholder services business that creates value for clients through a complete range of human capital management and shareholder solutions. On March 16, 2005 Mellon announced a definitive agreement to sell its Human Resources consulting and outsourcing business to Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS) in a transaction that is expected to close before the end of June 2005. Mellon Financial Corporation , a global financial services company, is headquartered in Pittsburgh and is one of the world's leading providers of financial services for institutions, corporations and high net worth individuals, providing institutional asset management, mutual funds, private wealth management, asset servicing, payment solutions and investor services, and treasury services. Mellon has more than $4.0 trillion in assets under management, administration or custody, including $729 billion under management. Its asset management companies include The Dreyfus Corporation and U.K.-based Newton Investment Management Limited. News and other information about Mellon is available at http://www.mellon.com/ .