getting exciting now CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS 2005After another...

getting exciting now


CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS 2005
After another eventful year for ICSGlobal, the company has emerged stronger than
before, with the greatest potential ever to capitalise on the considerable investment so
far made in Thelma.
Whilst the financial result was an improvement on the previous year, it was non-the-less
disappointing. Encouragingly, revenue and transaction volumes have continued to
grow. In addition, significant progress has been made on key strategic initiatives, such
as the UK based eCABS service, our pilots in the United States and our ongoing work
with a number of Australian banks.
Work on these initiatives has positioned us well to develop a number of new, and
potentially very large revenue streams.
The successful development and launch of the eCABS service for our partner
MackenzieHealth was a major milestone for the company. This was our first
international deployment of Thelma, and is a powerful demonstration to other potential
international partners that Thelma can be easily applied in other countries. We continue
to have a good relationship with MackenzieHealth, and we have already commenced
exploring with them some additional transaction opportunities that they have identified.
The United States is the world’s largest healthcare market with an estimated 30 billion
electronic healthcare transactions per annum. As the result of a concerted effort by the
Thelma team, the company recently received notification that Thelma complies with the
US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPAA Certification is a
mandatory pre-requisite for processing medical transactions in the US marketplace.
A further demonstration of our ability to use Thelma in the US is our pilot with
MedAccess Plus, which, we have just announced was successfully completed ahead of
schedule. In addition to our work with MedAccess Plus, we continue to have
discussions with a number of other parties in the US.
ICSGlobal has been highly focussed in its efforts to develop what is now a unique
capability to receive claim data in any format from the health service providers, and to
deliver it in any format required by each of the funders of health services. A number of
banks have recognised this capability and are working with us to add their settlement
capability to our service offerings.
In October 2004, the Australian Government created the Department of Human Services
and placed greater emphasis on the quality and efficiency of the delivery of health
services. Since then, there have been significant changes in Medicare Australia, which
was formerly known as the Health Insurance Commission. The new initiatives being
pursued by the Department of Human Services have the potential to radically increase
the use of electronic claiming, and could represent a significant opportunity for
ICSGlobal.
In addition to pursuing these key strategic initiatives, which we expect to generate
significant revenue in future years, the company is also aware of the need to improve its
immediate financial performance. Importantly, the company was able to sign Medibank
to a new three year agreement, which included the introduction of a subsidy by
Medibank to encourage hospitals to take up the Thelma service. This is a tremendous
vote of confidence in our service and Medibank’s support is greatly appreciated.
In recent months there has been a resurgence of interest by health funds and hospitals
in using our services. This trend is due to a number of factors including the re-signing of
Medibank and the introduction of the Medibank subsidy, and also our growing list of fund
and hospital reference sites. In the last three months we have signed up a further 7
health funds, taking our total number of funds to 21. On the hospital side, the
introduction of the Medibank subsidy is proving to be very attractive to the hospitals.
In regard to corporate governance issues, I have on other occasions stated that your
board is committed to current standards of governance, and in particular the ASX
Corporate Governance Guidelines and the CLERP 9 reforms. This year we have
provided a more comprehensive Remuneration Report, which in addition to detailed
figures, gives information about our policies and processes. There will be opportunity for
discussion of this report shortly. Our remuneration policies and practices are designed to
attract and retain high quality people, with packages that are appropriate in the
marketplace and consistent with achieving the company’s goals.
At this point, before asking Tim Murray to address you, I wish to on behalf of the Board,
thank all members of the Thelma team for their continued dedication and contribution,
and in particular to thank our shareholders for their continuing support.
Together we look forward to this next year with an air of confidence and excitement.
….........................................
Dean Pritchard
Chairman