United Community Bank expands healthcare offerings with remittance automation from MediStreams

BLAIRSVILLE, GA - August 8, 2011 - United Community Bank (NASDAQ:UCBI) announces that it has expanded its service to healthcare providers, physician groups, medical practices, hospitals and any organization faced with the challenge of processing remittance paperwork that accompanies payment from health insurance carriers.

Teaming with MediStreams (www.MediStreams.com), United Community Bank now offers a new Healthcare Remittance Service that provides healthcare businesses a way to streamline and automate the processing of healthcare Explanation of Benefit (EOB) documents and Electronic Remittance Advices (ERAs). Remittances that arrive at the provider's site in paper form are converted to an EDI format that can be automatically uploaded into the healthcare provider's system.

"The healthcare industry is changing, and with these changes come more administrative requirements, paperwork, and time spent in the office instead of with patients," says Bill Gilbert, Senior Vice President - Retail Banking. "Through our partnership with MediStreams, United Community Bank is able to provide a service that is invaluable to medical office administration."

Because the Healthcare Remittance Service digitizes and indexes all of the data, the provider is able to quickly retrieve remittance documents, images and reports, regardless of whether the data is sourced from a paper EOB or ERA. This data can be retrieved by searching on any of the indices on the claim, remittance or payment. Posting files are customized to meet the specific posting and business rules of the provider's accounts receivable system. This significantly reduces the need to manually process remittances, reduces denial rates, improves appeal recovery rates and reduces inefficiencies associated with a paper workflow.

"The strategic partnership with United Community Bank allows us to offer a complete medical banking solution to our clients," says John Koch, Chief Operations Officer of MediStreams. "It allows us to reconcile healthcare remittance documents directly to the financial transactions at the bank. We look forward to aligning our capabilities with United Community Bank and creating value for healthcare providers."

For more information on United Community Bank's Healthcare Remittance Service, visit the Business Banking section of ucbi.com, and click the "Other Business Services" link.

About United Community Bank

About United Community Banks, Inc. Headquartered in Blairsville, United Community Banks is the third-largest bank holding company in Georgia. United Community Banks has assets of $7.4 billion and operates 27 community banks with 106 banking offices located throughout north Georgia, the Atlanta region, coastal Georgia, western North Carolina and east Tennessee. The company specializes in providing personalized community banking services to individuals and small to mid-size businesses. United Community Banks also offers the convenience of 24-hour access through a network of ATMs, telephone and on-line banking. United Community Banks common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol UCBI.

About MediStreams

MediStreams is a Medical Banking and Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management company that focuses on the automation of the healthcare remittance process. The solution assures that 100% of the remittances received by a provider posts in an automated fashion; regardless of the original source of that remittance. The solution is ASP based and can be accessed from any internet connection. The solution automates the processing of EOBs for providers, significantly increases speed and accuracy, eliminates manual data entry, and puts the tools in place to manage the payment process of claims.