ALTHA Board of Directors Elects Phillip B. Douglas, President of LifeCare, As Next ALTHA President

The ALTHA Board of Directors is pleased to announce the election of Phillip B. Douglas, President of LifeCare Holdings, Inc. of Plano, Texas, to serve as the President of ALTHA, the Washington-based trade association for Long Term Acute Care (LTAC) hospitals. Mr. Douglas was elected by the ALTHA Board of Directors, which consists of the senior executives of the nation’s leading LTAC hospitals. With twenty LTAC hospitals in nine states, LifeCare is one of the largest LTAC hospital companies in the nation.

Mr. Douglas is a healthcare executive and entrepreneur with 29 years experience. He joined LifeCare as chief financial officer in January 2006. He previously held senior management positions with several healthcare and IT solutions companies, including UnitedHealth Group and Humana.

Mr. Douglas founded the health information technology company, Management and Technology Solutions, Inc., which was acquired by the TriZetto Group. He also co-founded HealthSpring, a physician practice management company that was acquired by the MetraHealth Companies. MetraHealth was ultimately acquired by UnitedHealth Group, where Mr. Douglas served as senior vice president of finance for the combined companies from 1995 to 1996.

Mr. Douglas succeeds William M. Altman, who served as ALTHA President for two years. Mr. Altman is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Public Policy for Kindred Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky.

LifeCare Hospitals are pioneers in LTAC hospital care. LifeCare’s hospitals include an equal mix of both freestanding and "hospital-in-hospital" facilities designed to treat medically-complex patients who require acute care hospital services for an extended period of time. LifeCare operates twenty hospitals in nine states and has its corporate offices in Plano, Texas.

For more information, please visit www.altha.org or call Dustin Siggins, Assistant Director of Communications, at 703-518-9900.

ABOUT LONG-TERM ACUTE-CARE HOSPITALS

Long Term Acute Care (LTAC) hospitals serve a valuable role in the continuum of American healthcare by caring for patients who need longer than usual hospital stays, on average twenty-five days. LTAC hospital patients are severely-ill, medically-complex patients with multiple comorbidities. Congress created LTAC hospitals to care for the small population of extremely ill patients for whom the cost of care is beyond the scope of most general hospitals.

LTAC hospitals are often considered part of the “post-acute” continuum of care which also includes rehabilitation hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home healthcare. ALTHA strongly supports the principle that each healthcare provider in the post-acute sector plays a critical and distinct role in meeting the needs of the patient population. ALTHA supports the principle that patients should be cared for in the most appropriate setting.

ABOUT THE ACUTE LONG TERM HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION (ALTHA)

ALTHA is the Washington-based trade association of Long Term Acute Care (LTAC) hospitals, representing three-quarters of this healthcare provider community. ALTHA’s primary mission is to protect patient access to the unique care our hospitals provide. ALTHA also serves as an educational resource for clinicians and executives who serve in our member facilities. ALTHA works to continuously improve the quality of care by sharing and improving best practices among its hospital members.

ALTHA hospital members include Kindred Healthcare (NYSE:KND), Select Medical Corporation (NYSE:SEM), Triumph Healthcare, LifeCare Hospitals, HealthSouth (NYSE:HLS), Promise Healthcare, RehabCare Group (NYSE:RHB), Regency Hospital Company, LHC Group (NASDAQ:LHCG), and many others. For more information, please visit http://www.altha.org/.