2 County Health-Care Providers to Buy Other Firms : Medicine: Acquisitions by PacifiCare and Abbey Healthcare are part of a trend spurred by White House reform plans.

The wave of health-care mergers that has shaken up the industry in recent years continued unabated Thursday as two Orange County companies announced separate acquisitions.

Abbey Healthcare Group Inc. said it has agreed to pay $12 million in cash and an unspecified amount of stock to acquire a Boston company that will help the Costa Mesa firm push its health-care products and services throughout the Northeast.

And PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. in Cypress said it has agreed to buy a small Seattle company for an undisclosed sum to help it expand its business in the Pacific Northwest.

Both companies already are among a group of health-care firms that have been on a buying binge as they jockey to take advantage of benefits that the health care industry expects under proposed Clinton Administration reforms.

Last year, PacifiCare picked up California Dental Health Plan, a dental HMO, for $20 million. Abbey bought Total Pharmaceutical Care for $195 million.

Their latest acquisitions come only a week after FHP International Corp. in Fountain Valley said it would buy a competing health maintenance organization in Northern California in a blockbuster deal worth $829 million.

In addition, Wellpoint Health Networks Inc., a Woodland Hills HMO, said Thursday that it has completed its $154-million purchase of UniCare Financial Corp., an Irvine workers’ compensation company.

PacifiCare, which already has operations in Washington, hopes that its purchase of 13-year-old Preferred Health Resources Inc. will give it a strong presence in the Seattle market, especially among elderly members. Preferred has 13,000 senior citizens among its 72,000 members.

“The state has passed its own health-care reform package, which we believe is going to expand the marketplace for managed health care over the next few years,” said Alan Hoops, PacifiCare’s president.

PacifiCare, with earnings of $63 million on revenue of $2.2 billion last year, is expected to reveal more details about the deal later. Preferred, a privately held HMO, earned more than $1 million on revenue of $80 million last year.

Abbey Healthcare will step into the field of home nursing services with its planned purchase of Protocare Inc. in Boston, said Susan J. Turkell, an Abbey spokeswoman. Protocare provides nursing services from 16 locations on the East Coast, mostly in New England.

The acquisition also will help Abbey expand in the New England market, which it entered with its purchase of Total Pharmaceutical. It also makes Abbey the nation’s largest distribution network of home health-care products and services with 229 branches in 45 states.

The purchase of Protocare is subject to a number of conditions, including the approval of Protocare’s shareholders and various regulatory agencies. Abbey said it hopes to close the deal by the end of March.