ENS Selects NPC's HealthePay Platform for Payer Electronic Payment and Remittance Advice Processing

NPC's Settlement Solution to Provide Advanced Payment Capabilities to ENS Payer Customers

Louisville, Ky., August 19, 2003 - National Processing Company, LLC (NPC®), a leading provider of payment settlement services, and a wholly owned subsidiary of National Processing, Inc. (NYSE: NAP), announced today a multi-year agreement with Electronic Network Systems, Inc. (ENS), a subsidiary of NWH, Inc. (NASDAQ: NWIR) and a leading provider of healthcare transaction processing services in full compliance of HIPAA-defined transaction sets. Under the terms of the agreement, ENS will utilize NPC's HealthePaySM payment platform to expand their payer services offering to include ACH payment capabilities, payment consolidation, and electronic remittance advice reporting for healthcare payers and providers.

Since 1989, ENS has helped pioneer the rapid evolution of e-commerce and medical reimbursements within the healthcare industry. Recognizing the demand for e-commerce from healthcare payer organizations and physician offices, ENS' state-of-the-art services not only eliminate paper and labor-intensive processes in the administration of healthcare, but increase productivity by automating and streamlining the workflow between healthcare payers and providers. ENS' leading-edge healthcare transactions platform, Health-e ExchangeTM, offers a single interface to conduct all HIPAA-defined transactions between payers and providers nationally. Health-e ExchangeTM also offers hosting services for all transactions allowing ENS and NPC to offer a complete solution to healthcare payers to meet all of their HIPAA outsourcing needs.

"When ENS considered payment processing and disbursement alternatives as a new service to our current offering, it was easy to see how this feature could quickly assist our payer-customer base in generating more administrative savings," said Dean Politi, senior vice president of Payer Services for ENS. "Furthermore, NPC has long been an industry leader in financial payment processing, and the advantages HealthePay can bring to the healthcare community is the next step in closing the claim processing loop while providing further automation in a HIPAA-compliant fashion."

"NPC is pleased that ENS selected our service as their payment processing and settlement solution, and believes this service offering is a major win for everyone involved," said John T. McRae II, senior vice president of Payment Services for NPC. "By utilizing the HealthePay platform, ENS expands their package of payer hosting services to encompass all EDI transactions, including direct deposit payments to providers - further eliminating the need for paper."

About NWH, Inc. and ENS

NWH was organized in 1993 as a holding and strategic resource company concentrating its resources on the acquisition, finance, development and management of telecom, healthcare services, technology, and media businesses. Its principal operating subsidiary, Electronic Network Systems (ENS) (www.enshealth.com), provides Internet and e-commerce connectivity between thousands of healthcare providers such as physicians, hospitals, clinics, practice management software vendors and third party commercial payers.

ENS is currently processing transactions annually from more than 200,000 providers. ENS provides and supports Health-e Network®, a full cycle suite of services designed to increase productivity, automate, and streamline workflow between providers and health care payer organizations.

About National Processing, Inc.

National Processing, Inc. through its wholly owned operating subsidiary, National Processing Company, LLC (NPC®) is a leading provider of merchant credit and debit card processing, and payment settlement solutions. National Processing is 85 percent owned by National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC) (www.NationalCity.com), one of the nation's largest financial holding companies. NPC's payment settlement solutions offer superior levels of service and performance and assist organizations in streamlining and lowering the cost associated with the financial settlement process. Additional information regarding National Processing can be obtained at www.npc.net.

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