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PHYCOR
THE PHYSICIANS' CORPORATION                                      NEWS RELEASE
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CONTACT: FOR PHYCOR, INC.:                          FOR MEDPARTNERS, INC.:
         Joseph C. Hutts                            Larry R. House
         Chairman, President and Chief Executive    Chairman and Chief Executive
         Officer                                    Officer
              or                                            or
         John K. Crawford                           Harold O. Knight, Jr.
         Chief Financial Officer                    Chief Financial Officer
         (615)665-9066                              (205)733-8996
 
         Investor Relations:                        Investor Relations:
         Shawn Carder                               Randy Pittman
         Director                                   Vice President - Finance
         (615)665-9066                                      or
                                                    Tom Bartels
         New York Media Contact:                    Director
         Sam Ostrow                                 (205)733-8996
         (203)328-3018

                                                    Media Relations:
         Other Media Contact:                       Tom Dingledy
         Tom Lawrence                               Vice President-Corporate
         (615)665-9066                              Communications
                                                    (205)733-8996

                        MEDPARTNERS AND PHYCOR ANNOUNCE
                           TERMINATION OF MERGER PLAN

Birmingham, Alabama, and Nashville, Tennessee (January 7, 1998) - MedPartners,
Inc. (NYSE:MDM) and PhyCor, Inc. (Nasdaq/NM:PHYC) today announced they have
mutually agreed to terminate their plan to merge the two companies. The Boards
of Directors of both companies had approved a merger agreement on October 29,
1997.

     "After a lengthy review and planning process, we determined due to
significant operational and strategic differences we would be unable to
successfully and effectively integrate the two companies," said Joseph C.
Hutts, president, chairman and chief executive officer of PhyCor. "Each company
takes a much different approach to business in a number of key areas,
including information systems, development, and operations. MedPartners is a
very well managed company with tremendous management talent, and I feel sure it
will continue to be very successful in the future."

     "The MedPartners team has worked very hard these past two months to gain
an understanding of PhyCor's business philosophies and practices and to have
them understand ours, and it became apparent the differences in the two
companies were significant," said Larry R. House, MedPartners'

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PHYCOR, Inc. - 30 Burton Hills Blvd. - Suite 400 - Nashville, Tenn. 37215 -
                                  615-665-9066
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PHYC Terminates Merger Plan
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January 7, 1998

chairman and chief executive officer. "During this time, we have continued to
position MedPartners for the future by strengthening our day-to-day operations
and planning strategic acquisitions."

     PhyCor, Inc., headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, is a physician
practice management company that operates multi-specialty clinics and manages
independent practice associations (IPAs). The Company operates 55 clinics with
approximately 3,860 physicians in 28 states and manages IPAs with over 18,700
physicians in 28 markets.

     MedPartners, Inc. with headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, is the
nation's largest manager of physician practices, operating in 40 states. The
company develops, consolidates and manages healthcare delivery systems. Through
the company's network of affiliated groups and IPA physicians, MedPartners
provides primary and specialty healthcare services to prepaid managed care
enrollees and fee-for-service patients. MedPartners also manages the nation's
largest independent prescription benefits management (PBM) company. Through the
PBM, the company administers 53 million prescriptions annually.


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