...ABYT NEWS!...
Thursday March 18, 8:33 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Alpha Bytes, Inc.
Alpha Bytes, Inc. Announces H-NET(R) Certification By VSP(R), America's Leading Eyecare Health Plan
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y., March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Alpha Bytes, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: ABYT - news), North America's leading provider of software for the vision care industry, announced today that the company's new H-NET® transactional network has been certified by Vision Service Plan (VSP®), America's leading eyecare health plan.
The certification sets the stage for H-NET® to provide transactional services to VSP's network of 18,000 eye doctors across the United States as well as lens providers and other eyecare vendors and others in the industry. VSP provides vision care benefits to nearly 15,000 groups including 143 Fortune 500 companies. With more than 28 million members, nearly one in 10 people in the United States rely on VSP for eyecare health coverage.
Initially available to the vision care industry, H-NET® will electronically link vision care providers including:
* retail opticians * retail optical chain home offices
* optometrists * ophthalmologists
* optical laboratories * insurance companies and health plan providers
*credit and debit card networks
The Internet based network will enable participants to significantly reduce costs while speeding up processing of health care claims and payments and simplifying the accompanying paper work. The network has potential applications for other healthcare segments and industries.
The announcement came as leaders and decision makers of the vision care industry prepare to gather in New York this week for the annual International Vision Expo/East, the world's leading ophthalmic event and conference. Last year Vision Expo/East attracted over 16,000 attendees from the global ophthalmic community including opticians, ophthalmologists, optometrists, lab managers, technicians and chain store senior executives. The conference is expected to attract over 20,000 vision care professionals this year. According to statistics made available by Reed Exhibition Companies, the conference organizer, 75% of all attendees have the authority to recommend, specify or purchase products and services. Last year, approximately half of the attendees signed a purchase order at the show.
Anton M. Stephens, chairman and chief executive officer of Alpha Bytes, Inc., said, ''The certification by VSP is another major step toward the successful launch this summer of H-NET®. The certification means that we have met the stringent standards set by VSP including interface to VSP systems, data integrity, reliability and data encryption. The vision care professionals attending Vision Expo/East this week will have a chance to see a demonstration of H-NET® for the first time and to understand how H-NET® can help to lower costs in their business operations and make their companies more efficient.''
There were an estimated 475 million transactions between various participants in the vision care industry in 1997, a significant number of those transactions handled manually. The transactions included such activities as checking for insurance eligibility, insurance claim submissions, eyeglass frame ordering, lens ordering, frame trace submissions, billing for lab services and credit/debit card transactions. H-NET® is designed to integrate all of these functions into an automated seamless network.
Alpha Bytes, Inc., North America's leading provider of enterprise software for the vision care industry, is transforming itself into an Internet based electronic transaction service provider. With an existing customer base of approximately 6,000 vision care outlets, Alpha Bytes is making significant R&D investments to facilitate a rapid deployment of H-NET® to as many users as quickly as possible. The relationship with the alliance partners Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ - news) is designed to assure the company of the most powerful solution for an Internet based transaction network that will set the standard of excellence in the healthcare industry.
For more information about Alpha Bytes, Inc. please visit their website www.alphabytesusa.com or contact Christine Stephens at 905-475-3249, or email info@h-net.net. For copies of press releases, SEC filings, current price quotes, stock charts and other valuable information visit Hawk Associates website hawkassociates.com or contact Frank Hawkins or Julie Marshall, Hawk Associates, Inc. at 305-852-2383, or email, info@hawkassociates.com.
''Safe Harbor'' statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding the expansion of the Company's operations are forward-looking statements. Words such as ''expects'', ''intends'', ''believes'', ''anticipates'', and ''likely'' also identify forward- looking statements. Actual results may differ from such forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including but not limited to, continued acceptance of the Company's products, increased levels of competition for the Company, new products and technological changes, the Company's dependence upon third-party suppliers, intellectual property rights and other risks detailed in periodic reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE: Alpha Bytes, Inc. |
