As noted above, the Corporate Governance Standards adopted by the Board of Directors require the Board of Directors to make an annual determination regarding the independence of each of the Company's directors and provide standards for making these determinations which are consistent with the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange. The Board made these determinations for each member of the Board on December 5, 2007, based on an annual evaluation performed by and recommendations made by the Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee, consistent with past practices.

As set forth in the Company's Corporate Governance Standards, a director will be independent only if the Board of Directors determines, based on a consideration of all relevant facts and circumstances, that the director has no material relationship with the Company or any of its subsidiaries (either directly or as a partner, shareholder or officer of an organization that has a relationship with the Company or any of its subsidiaries). In assessing the materiality of a director's relationship with the Company and each director's independence, the Board must consider the issue of materiality not only from the standpoint of the director but also from that of the persons or organizations with which the director has an affiliation. Material relationships can include, among others, commercial, industrial, banking, consulting, legal, accounting, charitable and familial relationships. In assessing a director's independence, the Board must also consider the director's ownership, or affiliation with the owner, of less than a controlling amount of voting securities of the Company. The Board cannot conclude that a director is independent in the following circumstances:

• The director is, or has been within the last three years, an employee of the Company or any of its subsidiaries, or an immediate family member of the director is, or has been within the last three years, an executive officer of the Company (but employment as an interim executive officer will not disqualify a director from being considered independent following that employment).
• The director has received, or has an immediate family member who has received, during any twelve-month period within the last three years, more than $100,000 per year in direct compensation from the Company or its subsidiaries, other than director and committee fees and pension or other forms of deferred compensation for prior service (provided such compensation is not contingent in any way on continued service).
• (A) The director or an immediate family member of the director is a current partner of a firm that is the internal or external auditor of the Company or any of its subsidiaries; (B) the director is a current employee of such a firm; (C) the director has an immediate family member who is a current employee of such a firm and who participates in the firm's audit, assurance or tax compliance (but not tax planning) practice; or (D) the director or an immediate family member was within the last three years (but is no longer) a partner or employee of such a firm and personally worked on the audit of the Company or any of its subsidiaries within that time.
• The director or an immediate family member of the director is, or has been within the last three years, employed as an executive officer of another company where any of the Company's present executives at the same time serves or served on that company's compensation committee.
• The director is a current employee, or an immediate family member of the director is a current executive officer, of a company that has made payments to, or received payments from, the Company for property or services in an amount which, in any of the last three fiscal years, exceeded the greater of $1 million, or 2% of such other company's consolidated gross revenues.
• The director owns, or is affiliated with the owner of, a controlling amount of voting stock of the Company.

To assist in the Board's determinations, each director completed materials designed to identify any relationships that could affect the director's independence, and the General Counsel and Secretary of the Company conducted follow up interviews with certain directors. On the basis of these materials and the standards described above, the Board determined that each of Rolf A. Classon, Charles E. Golden, Ronald A. Malone, Eduardo R. Menascé, Patrick T. Ryan and Joanne C. Smith is independent.

With respect to Rolf A. Classon, the Board considered the fact that Mr. Classon served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company from May 11, 2005 to March 20, 2006 and received compensation from the Company for serving in that capacity. In determining that this relationship was not material, the Board considered that Mr. Classon served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer for a period of only approximately ten months and received compensation that the Board believed was reasonable and appropriate for his service in that capacity. Further, the Board noted that the NYSE listing standards and the Company's Corporate Governance Standards expressly acknowledge that service as an executive officer in an interim capacity, and compensation received for that service, do not disqualify a director from being considered independent.

The Board considered that Charles E. Golden is a member of the Board of Directors of Clarian Health Partners, which purchased approximately $6.6 million, $3.0 million and $3.5 million of products and services from the Company in the fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively. In determining that this relationship was not material, the Board considered that Mr. Golden is not an executive officer of Clarian Health Partners and that the amount of products and services purchased from the Company by Clarian Heath Partners in the last three years has been substantially below 2% of the consolidated gross revenues of Clarian Health Partners in those years.

With respect to each of Eduardo R. Menascé and Patrick T. Ryan, the Board considered the Company's payment to or receipt from entities of which one of these individuals serves as a director of de minimis amounts for goods and services in the ordinary course of business. In determining that these relationships were not material, the Board considered that these directors were not executive officers of any of the entities to or from which the Company made or received payments and that the payments have not exceeded $300,000 in any of the last three years.

With respect to Joanne C. Smith, the Board considered the fact that the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, of which Dr. Smith has served as President and Chief Executive Officer since October 2006 and served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development from April 2002 through November 2005 and as President of its National Division from November 2005 through October 2006, has purchased approximately $206,000, $50,000 and $57,000 of products and services from the Company in fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively. In evaluating this relationship, the Board considered that the amount of purchases by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in the last three years constituted significantly less than 2% of the gross revenues of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in those years and that Dr. Smith had no authority with respect to the purchasing decisions of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago prior to November 2005 and no direct authority for purchasing decisions since November 2005. On the basis of these factors, the Board determined that this relationship was not material.

The Board concluded that, based on all of the relevant facts and circumstances, none of these relationships constituted a material relationship with the Company that represents a potential conflict of interest or otherwise interferes with the exercise by any of these directors of his or her independent judgment from management and the Company.

Also on the basis of the standards described above and the materials submitted by the directors, the Board determined that W August Hillenbrand does not meet the standards for independence. Peter H. Soderberg also does not meet the independence standards because of his current service as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Accordingly, neither of these non-independent directors serves on the Audit, Compensation and Management Development or Nominating/Corporate Governance Committees of the Board of Directors.