• Meridian Opens Emory Pulmonary Diagnostics Laboratory

(Tallahassee, FL / July 30, 2008) Meridian Healthcare Group, Inc. ("Meridian") has entered into an agreement to develop and operate a pulmonary diagnostic laboratory in LaGrange, Georgia with Emory Specialty Associates, LLC. The diagnostic laboratory is scheduled to commence operations in August 2008.

Emory Specialty Associates (ESA) was formed in 2006 as Emory Healthcare's outreach physician practice organization, managed by The Emory Clinic. It houses specialty divisions of primary care, cardiology and hospital-based specialties such as anesthesiology, pathology and emergency medicine, and with the affiliation with the Clark-Holder Clinic, a division for multi-specialty groups.

Established in 1936, Clark-Holder Clinic is the largest multi-specialty group practice in West Georgia employing over 30 doctors and other health care providers with a staff of 170. Clark-Holder Clinic has provided medical services to the citizens of west Georgia and east Alabama for nearly 70 years.

Emory Healthcare is the clinical arm of Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center and is the largest, most comprehensive health care system in Georgia. Emory Healthcare includes Emory University Hospital, Emory University Hospital Northlake, Emory Crawford Long Hospital, Wesley Woods Center, Emory Johns Creek Hospital, The Emory Clinic, Emory Children's Center, the jointly owned Emory-Adventist Hospital, and EHCA, a limited liability company created in collaboration with Hospital Corporation of America.

Meridian Healthcare Group, headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, is a nationally recognized leader in the field of pulmonary medicine providing services to patients in thirty-eight states.

As one of the largest providers of contract therapy and disease state management in the United States, Meridian has built a national network of clinical programs in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, outpatient clinics, homecare centers, polysomnography laboratories and respiratory pharmacies.