For Immediate Release

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Barbara Erb
U.S. Living Will Registry
Phone: (908) 654-1441/Fax: (908) 654-1919
barb@uslivingwillregistry.com

Living Will Registry Expands Services

Hospices, Nursing homes and Home health agencies gain access to national repository of patients' wishes

Westfield, N.J. (May 7, 2001) - The U.S. Living Will Registry, a leading provider of advance directives to the medical community, is pleased to announce the expansion of its services to include hospices, nursing facilities and home health care agencies. Originally available only to hospitals, the Registry is responding to requests from other health care providers to gain access to the Registry's automated advance directive registry system.

The U.S. Living Will Registry, founded in 1996 by Dr. Joseph Barmakian, electronically stores advance directives and makes them available to health care providers across the country through an automated computer-facsimile system. Developed in consultation with attorneys who represent hospitals, the service is available by telephone or on the Internet. An innovative system provides for complete privacy and confidentiality of the documents and personal information. The service is provided free of charge to the public, and is supported by nominal annual fees paid by health care providers in return for unlimited access to the automated system.

"We are responding to an overwhelming number of requests from hospice and home health agencies to give them access to the Registry," said Dr. Barmakian. "These facilities have a hard time obtaining advance directives when the patient and family members are going through a difficult time emotionally."

Health care providers (hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, nursing facilities, home health agencies, providers of home health care, and hospices) now have a way to manage advance directives at their facilities. The Registry solves the problems of storage, retrieval and updating of advance directives, and helps providers comply with federal regulations about advance directives and community education. The Registry also recently added a separate Organ Donor Registry to help with the organ procurement process.

Now nursing homes, hospices and home health agencies can join hospitals in retrieving advance directives 24 hours a day through the Registry's automated service. By calling 1-800-LIV-WILL or visiting the secure Internet web site, providers can obtain a faxed copy of a patient's advance directive, emergency contact information and organ donor information within seconds.

For more information on the Registry, visit www.uslivingwillregistry.com on the Internet, or call toll-free 1-800-LIV-WILL.