WellPoint Health Earns Profit of $61.6 Million

WellPoint Health Networks Inc., a Woodland Hills managed health-care company, said its first-quarter profit more than doubled on a 16% increase in revenue.

In the three months that ended March 31, WellPoint earned $61.6 million on $682 million in revenue. A year earlier, the company had net income of $26.2 million on revenue of $586.9 million. Included in the first quarter of 1993 was a onetime, $21.3-million charge for accounting changes.

WellPoint said that as of March 31, its medical plan membership had increased 11% from a year before, to 2.43 million. Its pharmacy membership grew by 41%, to 2.25 million, and dental membership rose 4%, to 424,000.