Sonic Healthcare USA Launches Lab Synergy(TM) Hospital Laboratory Program

AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwire - Jan 28, 2013) - Sonic Healthcare USA (SHUSA) today announces the launch of a new hospital laboratory program, Lab Synergy™, under the leadership of its newly named Vice President of Hospital Affiliations, Noel K. Maring. Lab Synergy leverages the international commercial and hospital laboratory testing expertise of Sonic Healthcare to support health systems in a changing healthcare environment.

Through Lab Synergy, hospitals will receive customized services based on their individual needs to re-align their laboratory cost structure and position their laboratories as profit centers while providing quality care to their patients, delivering the following benefits:

• Stable, predictable, frequently lower inpatient laboratory cost structure improves bottom line revenue
• Enhanced positioning in the market due to comprehensive outreach laboratory service
• Increased purchasing power with access to Sonic's world-wide supply and lab equipment cost structure
• Potential to monetize laboratory outreach assets thus redeploying capital invested in the lab to other strategically important health system service lines
• A comprehensive test menu comprised of clinical, anatomic and molecular diagnostics enabling definitive test results and diagnoses
• Improved integration of inpatient and outreach lab services, including electronic medical records (EMR) integration, resulting in improved patient outcomes

"As health systems move from a focus on inpatient care to systemic clinical integration that emphasizes value over volume, senior management teams are embracing new ways of evaluating and supporting their health system's service lines," said David W. Bryant, SHUSA Chief Executive Officer. "Lab Synergy will provide health system executives with additional tools to cost-effectively manage their laboratories and enable local community hospitals to deliver quality patient care while successfully competing with large national labs that have historically encroached on their business."

Hospitals that participate in SHUSA's Lab Synergy program benefit from working with an organization that embraces medical leadership and respects the importance of local medicine. Its federated operating model provides significant autonomy to each laboratory, allowing local client and patient needs to be met, while receiving support from the overall organization's worldwide resources, technology and experience.

SHUSA's Lab Synergy program is being led by Noel Maring, who has more than 25 years of experience in the clinical laboratory industry and extensive knowledge in hospital joint ventures, sales, marketing, and new business development. He has a long professional history of successful partnering with hospital laboratories. Before joining Sonic Healthcare USA, Mr. Maring was involved in developing partnerships with 37 hospitals throughout the USA. In addition he has held executive level positions within large commercial laboratories and hospital systems, providing him with unique perspective on both the commercial laboratory market place and hospital laboratories.

"We're confident that Lab Synergy fills a specific, critical need for hospitals to be more competitive, efficient and profitable," Maring said. "With the coming changes in healthcare reimbursement, this is the ideal time for hospital labs to partner with us to maximize our respective strengths, mitigate risk and provide a comprehensive healthcare offering to improve patient outcomes."

About Sonic Healthcare USA
Sonic Healthcare USA is one of the nation's largest reference laboratories and serves as the umbrella organization overseeing Sonic Healthcare Limited's operation in the United States. Our federation of more than a dozen autonomous laboratories offers a comprehensive test menu including clinical, anatomic and molecular pathology. We facilitate communication and collaboration among our member laboratories, which share our values and vision of providing physicians with the highest quality laboratory testing and personalized service tailored to the individual needs of each local medical community. Our collective passion and commitment bolster patient and physician satisfaction while increasing efficiency and effectiveness. With an established reputation as a leader in pathology services, we are dedicated to every patient's health and every client's success. For more information, visit www.sonichealthcareusa.com.