Robert J. Erra, president and chief financial...

Robert J. Erra, president and chief financial officer of financially troubled Western Health Plans, will leave the San Diego-based health-maintenance organization Dec. 30 to become senior vice president and chief operating officer of Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation in La Jolla.

Samuel L. Westover, who has been a consultant to Western since Nov. 1, will serve as chief operating officer until a new chief executive is selected, according to Vice Chairman Jack Savidge. Westover formerly was chief financial officer of Los Angeles-based Maxicare Health Plans.

Western, which operates the 153,639-member Greater San Diego Health Plan, has lost $21.5 million during the past three years. Those losses have created “substantial doubt about (Western’s) ability to continue as a going concern,” according to Western’s most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Erra, who became Western’s president in 1987, previously served as chief administrative officer at the Santa Barbara Medical Foundation Clinic.