HEALTH CARE
Membership Milestone: PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. has passed a milestone.
The health maintenance organization reports that, for the first time in its 15-year history, it is providing medical insurance to more than 1 million people, putting it among the top 10 HMOs in the country.
By comparison, PacifiCare’s chief Orange County competitor, FHP Inc. in Fountain Valley, has 771,000 members. But PacifiCare, based in Cypress, still has a way to go to be a contender with HMO giant Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, which has 6.5 million members.
The reason for PacifiCare’s success, the company said, is a two-pronged push to sign Medicare recipients to its Secure Horizons plan and expand its services across California, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Oklahoma.
According to a breakdown by the company, about 780,000 members are workers and their families, while 235,000 are part of the Secure Horizons plan, which contracts with the federal government to enroll Medicare recipients.
