Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc. Announces a National Agreement With Great-West Healthcare Through Linkia, Its Wholly-Owned Provider Network Management Company

BETHESDA, Md., July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc. , through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Linkia, LLC, a provider network management company, has announced a network agreement with Great-West Healthcare. Effective August 1, 2006, Linkia will manage the orthotic and prosthetic (O&P) care network for Great-West. Through this new agreement, Linkia will provide a nationwide O&P network consisting of Hanger-owned patient care centers and independent facilities.

"We are very pleased Great-West has entrusted Linkia with management of its O&P network," Ivan R. Sabel, CPO, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Hanger Orthopedic Group said. "This move by Great-West is further recognition of the value healthcare companies see in Linkia."

About Great-West Healthcare: Great-West Healthcare, a division of Great- West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, is a national employee benefits provider with expertise in self-funding and health care management solutions. Nationally, the division operates a health care network that includes more than 4,200 hospitals and 530,000 providers and provides health care coverage to nearly 2 million people. Visit http://www.greatwesthealthcare.com/ for more information.

About Hanger: Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc., headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, is the world's premier provider of orthotic and prosthetic patient care services. Hanger is the market leader in the United States, owning and operating 621 patient care centers in 46 states including the District of Columbia, with 3,290 employees including 1,032 practitioners (as of 3/31/06). Hanger is organized into four units. The two key operating units are patient care which consists of nationwide orthotic and prosthetic practice centers and distribution which consists of distribution centers managing the supply chain of orthotic and prosthetic componentry to Hanger and third party patient care centers. The third is Linkia (http://www.linkia.com/) which is the first and only provider network management company for the orthotics and prosthetics industry. The fourth unit, Innovative Neurotronics (http://www.ininc.us/), introduces emerging neuromuscular technologies developed through independent research in a collaborative effort with industry suppliers worldwide. For more information on Hanger, visit http://www.hanger.com/.

Certain statements included in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please refer to the Company's SEC filings for factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations.

Contacts: Jennifer Bittner (Media), 301-280-4869, jbittner@hanger.com Hai Tran, (Investor), 301-986-0701, htran@hanger.com