An investor group purchased AmeriCare Health.

The Bellevue health-care organization announced it has been bought by a group of California investors for $137 million. AmeriCare, which was the fifth-largest publicly traded health maintenance organization with offices in Bellevue and Spokane, Wash., becomes a privately held corportation under the takeover agreement. The buyers, which offered shareholders $13 a share for the approximately 10 million shares outstanding, include Merrill Lynch Interfunding Inc., Sutter Health System, Med Pacific Ltd. and members of AmeriCare’s current management.