Agent commission expense for the year ended December 31, 1999 decreased $12.5 million, or 18.3%, to $55.9 million from $68.4 million for the same period in 1998. This decrease is consistent with the decrease in fully insured revenues for the period indicated, as described above.
Personnel expense for the year ended December 31, 1999 decreased $8.6 million, or 7.0%, to $114.7 million from $123.3 million in 1998. We incurred $6.6 million of personnel expense associated with the consolidation of CENTRA and NPPN. These consolidation expenses were offset by reduced salaries resulting from a reduction of 485 employees in our workforce and reduction in the use of overtime and temporary help, and the outsourcing of our care management services for CENTRA to Sykes HealthPlan Services, Inc. ("SHPS"). These services are now included as professional services within general and administrative expense.
General and administrative expense for the year ended December 31, 1999 increased $8.5 million, or 11.8%, to $80.3 million from $71.8 million for the year ended December 31, 1998. This increase was primarily attributable to $8.9 million of general and administrative expense associated with the consolidation of CENTRA's and NPPN's financial results, an increase of $1.9 million in CENTRA professional services due to the outsourcing of its care management services to SHPS beginning in the fourth quarter of 1998, and a charge of $5.7 million in pretax expense primarily related to claims asserted by four former customers and seven insurance brokers (see Note 10 to the financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K). This increase was partially offset by reductions in rent due to office closings and reductions in telephone, postage, printing, and charges to the reserve for doubtful accounts.
During 1999, we recorded a total of $3.8 million in restructuring costs for office closure and employee terminations. In the second quarter of 1999, we incurred $0.9 million of restructuring costs reflecting employee terminations associated with reductions in our fully insured workforce in Tampa, Florida. We terminated 63 employees in management, claims administration, and information systems. In December 1999, we recorded a restructure charge of $2.9 million relating to the closing of our self-funded offices in Richardson, Texas and San Bernardino, California, and additional reductions in the self-funded workforces in Duncan, Oklahoma and St. Louis, Missouri. We terminated a total of 133 employees in management, claims administration, and information systems.
Interest expense for the year ended December 31, 1999 increased to $7.8 million from $6.9 million in 1998. This increase resulted primarily from increased debt borrowed in 1998 to fund our acquisitions of CENTRA and NPPN, and to fund repurchases of our Common Stock in 1998 and 1999. During 1998 and 1999, we purchased 1,276,700 and 242,700 shares, respectively, of our stock for a collective purchase price of $30.0 million, all of which was borrowed pursuant to our credit facility.
Revenues for the year ended December 31, 1998 increased $7.6 million, or 2.7%, to $289.2 million from $281.6 million in 1997. New revenues of $20.3 million and $10.0 million recognized as a result of the CENTRA and NPPN acquisitions, respectively, were offset by a decrease in revenues from fully insured customers ($3.2 million), primarily related to the transition of the United HealthCare and Travelers block of indemnity/preferred provider organization business to Seaboard Life Insurance Company products. This reduction in fully insured revenues was partially offset by $26.1 million in revenues from the Provident Indemnity and Provident American block of business. Other revenue decreases were realized from self-funded customers ($16.7 million), primarily related to the sale of the contracts of Diversified Group Brokerage, Inc., in 1997, along with the loss of three large customers in 1998, and from alliance customers ($3.5 million), primarily related to us exiting the Kentucky alliance in 1997.
During the year ended December 31, 1998, we sold 370,711 of our shares of Caredata.com Inc.'s stock and all 200,000 of our shares of Health Risk Management stock, resulting in gains of $5.2 million and $0.2 million, respectively. On September 11, 1998, we sold our 50% interest in SHPS to Sykes Enterprises for $30.6 million and recognized a gain on the sale of SHPS of $27.9 million.
Depreciation and amortization expense for the year ended December 31, 1998 decreased $0.1 million, or 0.6%, to $15.8 million from $15.9 million in 1997. Some of our furniture and fixtures became fully amortized in 1997. Additionally, we wrote off internally developed software related to our exiting the Kentucky alliance in 1997. These reductions were partially offset by amortization of goodwill on our CENTRA and NPPN acquisitions.
We recorded our 50% share of the loss incurred by SHPS through the date of its disposition, which was $11.8 million on a pre-tax basis. This loss principally resulted from a charge for the write-off of purchased research and development associated with acquisitions by SHPS.
We began implementing this plan in 1996 with an upgrade of the mainframe operating system. We purchased and replaced our accounting and financial system and workers compensation system and wrote and implemented a new system for the unemployment compensation business. We received from the vendor and implemented, for all current
We requested Y2K compliance information from our significant customers and vendors, including landlords and other third parties that are responsible for non-information technology systems such as security and environmental controls. In particular, we asked each vendor and customer for information regarding (a) the status of the vendor's or customer's Y2K readiness initiative, and (b) information regarding any expected changes in the vendor's or customer's data interface with us.
A team of our information system professionals coordinated our Y2K compliance efforts and tested any new interfaces with vendors and customers. To date, we have not experienced disruptions in any of our computer systems. Our team of information system professionals will continue to monitor our computer systems until we have completed data exchanges with vendors and customers. Although we do not expect that any disruptions that might occur from such data exchanges would materially disrupt our computer systems, we cannot guarantee that they would have no material effect.
Between January 1, 1996 and December 31, 1999, we spent $11.6 million for Y2K compliance systems and upgrades. These costs include the expense of replacing any existing systems with Y2K compliant systems, even in cases where the system would have been replaced or upgraded regardless of Y2K requirements. We expect to spend less than $0.5 million during the first quarter of 2000 in both capital and modification costs to complete our Y2K program.
Under our May 1, 1998 Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, as amended, we maintain a line of credit of $115.0 million (the "Line of Credit") with availability equal to a multiple of trailing earnings before interest expense, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization expense (with certain adjustments called for in the credit agreement). This multiple is set at 3.25 through June 30, 2001, and steps down thereafter to 2.75 during the remaining term of the facility. First Union National Bank of North Carolina serves as "agency bank," and NationsBank, N.A. serves as co-agent, with respect to this facility. The credit facility contains provisions which include the maintenance of certain minimum financial ratios, limitations on merger and acquisition activity, limitations on capital expenditures, limitations on dividends and distributions, and limitations on investment activity. Our borrowing under the Line of Credit includes interest ranging from LIBOR plus 250 basis points to New York prime plus 150 basis points. Current rates on LIBOR drawings on the Line of Credit at December 31, 1999 were 8.0%. The Line of Credit carries a commitment fee ranging from 0.175% to 0.25% of the unused portion and is secured by the stock of our subsidiaries. The outstanding draw was $90.0 million at December 31, 1999, and the maximum amount available was $90.0 million.
New York prime drawings, to 250 and 150 basis points, respectively; and (c) we may not exceed our borrowings on the date of the Standstill Agreement plus the amount available under our swingline credit agreement of $5.0 million with the agency bank. On March 17, 2000, the Standstill Agreement was extended to April 15, 2000.
The agreement requires initial payment of a fee of 1% of the maximum amount of the facility plus certain administrative fees and annual commitment fee of .25% for letters of credit and unused commitments.
During the second quarter of 1997, our Board of Directors authorized us to use up to $20.0 million to support a share repurchase program. We began implementing this share repurchase program in the first quarter of 1998. On May 12, 1998, the Board increased to $30.0 million its authorization to repurchase shares under this program. During the second quarter of 1999, we completed this share repurchase program. During 1999, we acquired an additional 242,700 shares under this program at a cost of $1.9 million.
On April 29, 1999, we paid CENTRA Benefit Services $4.4 million, which represented a payment of $5.5 million for CENTRA Benefit Services' remaining 49.9% interest in CENTRA, offset by amounts due to us in connection with the CENTRA acquisition.
We spent $8.0 million for capital expenditures during the year ended December 31, 1999.
Based upon current expectations, we believe that all consolidated operating and financing activities for the next twelve months will be met from internally generated cash flow from operations, available cash, or our revised Line of Credit.