Health Net Federal Services Honored to Accept TRICARE’s "Contractor of the Year” Award for Anti-Fraud Efforts

Health Net Federal Services, LLC, the government operations division of Health Net, Inc. (NYSE:HNT), today announced it was named "Contractor of the Year” and received the Anti-Fraud Performance Award for 2007-2008 at the annual TRICARE National Health Care Anti-Fraud Conference currently being held in Nashville, Tenn. Health Net is a contractor for TRICARE, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) health care benefit program.

This award is the highest recognition that the TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) Program Integrity awards to recognize TRICARE Program Integrity Departments that exemplify a strong commitment to the prevention, detection and deterrence of fraud and abuse in the TRICARE Program. This is the first time Health Net Federal Services Program Integrity Department has been the recipient of this award. In addition, Health Net Federal Services was awarded runner-up for "Case of the Year” in which Health Net’s investigations led to the arrest and capture of a Maryland provider who redirected government money to his own private practice through self-referrals.

"We are honored our Program Integrity Department has been recognized for its tremendous efforts to prevent, detect and deter fraud and abuse,” said Steve Tough, president, Health Net Federal Services. "Partnering with TRICARE’s Program Integrity Department is a privilege, and together we’ve proved to be a great team.”

"Health Net's Program Integrity Unit tackled several challenges head-on these last two years and used these challenges as opportunities to increase the quality and quantity of its case referrals,” said Rose Sabo, director, TRICARE Program Integrity. Sabo added, "Specifically, Health Net is being recognized for refining its case prioritization and reporting process, emphasizing proactive case identification through daily data mining, increasing its quality control measures within the audit process, and enhancing its ability to investigate foreign claims.”

The 2009 TRICARE Health Care Anti-Fraud Conference is being held at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn., from April 29 to May 1, 2009. The TMA Program Integrity hosts this Health Care Anti-Fraud Conference to promote and encourage information sharing/training with key representatives in DoD; other federal and state health care programs; federal, state and local investigative services; and government-contracted commercial health care carriers.

About Health Net

Health Net Federal Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Health Net, Inc., has a long history of providing cost-effective, quality managed health care programs for government agencies including the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs. As the managed care support contractor for the TRICARE North Region, Health Net provides health care services to over 3 million uniformed services beneficiaries, active and retired, and their families.

Health Net, Inc. is among the nation’s largest publicly traded managed health care companies. Its mission is to help people be healthy, secure and comfortable. The company’s health plans and government contracts subsidiaries provide health benefits to approximately 6.7 million individuals across the country through group, individual, Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE and Veterans Affairs programs. Health Net’s behavioral health subsidiary, MHN, provides mental health benefits to approximately 6.9 million individuals in all 50 states. The company’s subsidiaries also offer managed health care products related to prescription drugs, and offer managed health care product coordination for multi-region employers and administrative services for medical groups and self-funded benefits programs.

For more information on Health Net, Inc., please visit the company’s Web site at www.healthnet.com. For more information on Health Net Federal Services, please visit www.healthnetfederalservices.com.

Cautionary Statements

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical information provided herein, may be deemed to be forward-looking statements and as such are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on management’s analysis, judgment, belief and expectation only as of the date hereof, and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Without limiting the foregoing, statements including the words "believes,” "anticipates,” "plans,” "expects,” "may,” "should,” "could,” "estimate,” "intend” and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially due to, among other things, rising health care costs, negative prior period claims reserve developments, additional investment portfolio impairment charges, changes in the economy, volatility in the financial markets, trends in medical care ratios, unexpected utilization patterns or unexpectedly severe or widespread illnesses, membership declines, rate cuts affecting our Medicare or Medicaid business, issues relating to provider contracts, litigation costs, regulatory issues, operational issues, health care reform and general business and market conditions. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the risks discussed in the "Risk Factors” section, included within the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise any of its forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date of this release.