Optus has signed a deal with the Australian Health Insurance Commission (HIC) to provide a Managed IP Network Solution (MINS).

The deal, worth more than $25 million over three years, confirms Optus as one of the leading providers of communication services to the Federal Government.

Bill Leakey, Director for Optus Business said the company has been successful with winning major outsourcing deals with Federal Government including Cluster 3 and the Australian Taxation Office.

"Optus is focused on developing a true partnership with the HIC to ensure a thorough understanding of their business - our objective is to help our clients meet their business goals.

"For HIC, the key goal is giving the Australian health industry a reliable and robust communications solution - which helps the industry service its customers, and Medicare users, better," Mr Leakey said.

The Optus solution, a fully managed IP data network which combines both the wide area and local area networks under one managed services contract, will stretch to all of HIC's corporate offices and 226 Medicare offices across Australia - a total of 249 locations.

The HIC will have access to strategic data network architecture allowing it to establish web-based services as one of its three key channels for interaction with the public. The web service will complement the HIC’s existing call centre and Medicare shopfront operations.

Roze Frost, Infrastructure Delivery Manager for the Health Insurance Commission said, "Optus demonstrated a thorough understanding of our business requirements and was therefore able to develop a solution which successfully addressed our needs.

"By entering into this direct relationship with Optus, our business will achieve significant reductions in our overall network costs," she said.

"Optus has had a long-standing involvement with the HIC in the area of electronic Medicare claim lodgement, which is deployed in 3,500 medical practices around Australia. It has been through this that Optus has been able to grow its partnership with the HIC, continuing to help them meet their business goals," Mr Leakey concluded.

Media contact:
Luisa Ford
Optus Corporate Affairs
Phone: +61 2 9342 5045

About Optus: www.optus.com.au
About the Health Insurance Commission: www.hic.gov.au