Mutually Exclusive: It seemed like the best...

Mutually Exclusive: It seemed like the best of times and the worst of times last week for Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. In reality, it was just so-so.

The second annual consumer complaint survey, conducted by the state Department of Insurance, listed the Newport Beach company as the second-best health insurer and the second-worst health insurer among the 50 largest carriers in the state.

If that sounds impossible, it is.

Several years ago, Pacific Mutual started shipping its group health insurance business to its PM Group Life subsidiary in Fountain Valley and completed the transfer last year. PM Group, meantime, handled all claims and other chores for health insurance policies originally written by its parent company.

“It’s all one operation, and it’s been that way for some time,” said Robert Haskell, Pacific Mutual’s spokesman. “We chuckled last year when the state Insurance Department listed the companies separately. We thought it was straightened out for this year.”

But the state agency’s survey found two complaints against PM Group, ranking it as the second best in the state last year, and 29 against Pacific Mutual, ranking it the second worst.

In fact, Haskell said, based on the combined group health premiums of $175 million last year, the 31 total complaints against Pacific Mutual and PM Group ranked the company 23rd out of 50--just about in the middle.

As a life insurance company, Pacific Mutual fared much better. The largest state-based life insurer ranked 11th.