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Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Connor26 who wrote (51652)	7/20/1999 11:16:00 PM
From: Susan G	Respond to of 120523

Excellent stuff Connor, Thanks. I'm swiping that to post on the gnet thread. If anyone is long HLTH - you may want to read this. DLJdirect News Alert! triggered at 10:12 PM for symbol: HLTH Healtheon up on prescription deal, analysts wary Healtheon up on prescription deal, analysts wary LOS ANGELES, July 20 (Reuters) - Shares of Healtheon Corp. <HLTH.O> rose as much as 13 percent on Tuesday after the Internet healthcare services company said it will set up an online service for prescription drugs. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Healtheon said it planned to set up a pilot program, Healtheon Rx, with Merck-Medco Managed Care, LLC, a provider of prescription drugs. The pilot will include physicians who have a high concentration of patients with prescription plans administered by Merck-Medco, a subsidiary of drug maker Merck & Co Inc. <MRK.N>, the companies said. On Nasdaq, Healtheon ended up $4.06 at $63.13 after earlier rising as high as $67.50. Some analysts, however, questioned whether the stock would be able to hold that level given a large number of shares that insiders will become free to trade over the next few months. "The Merck deal is a short-term catalyst and it was expected," said Mark Mulcahy, an analyst at Pacific Growth Equities. "But there are some bigger issues for Healtheon, like the tens of millions of shares that will soon be free to trade." He said shares from the company's initial public offering earlier this year will be open to trade on Aug. 10, while another raft of shares related to recent acquisitions will be open to trading in September. "Healtheon's current float is about 6 million, so tens of millions more is an extremely large increase," Mulcahy said. Healtheon could not be immediately reached for comment. Healtheon and Merck said they aimed to improve patient care and reduce overall healthcare costs by streamlining the exchange of clinical data among doctors, patients, pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers. Mulcahy and other analysts noted that Merck has similar online deals with at least two other companies. Healtheon said it will provide software to physicians in states where the electronic transmission of prescriptions is legal, while Merck-Medco is financially supporting development and design of the prescription application and physician sponsorships. REUTERS Rtr 22:05 07-20-99