Folick to Leave PacifiCare for United HealthCare : Medical care: President and CEO of Cypress company will join large Minneapolis-based operator of HMOs.
Jeffrey M. Folick is leaving his job as president and chief executive officer of PacifiCare of California to become president of health plan operations at United HealthCare Corp. of Minneapolis, one of the nation’s largest operators of health maintenance organizations, company officials confirmed Monday.
Folick, 47, has been president of the Cypress-based PacifiCare since April, 1993. PacifiCare of California has more than 900,000 HMO members and is the main business unit of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., of which Folick is also vice president.
Richard Lipeles, the corporation’s executive vice president and former president of PacifiCare of California, will take over Folick’s duties on an interim basis.
Alan Hoops, PacifiCare Health System’s president and CEO, had no immediate comment on Folick’s resignation, which sources said he tendered unexpectedly on Friday. On Monday, PacifiCare issued an internal memo indicating that Folick would leave the company.
Folick, a Tustin resident, declined to comment Monday, saying he did not want to speak before the formal announcement of his appointment, which is expected today.
Noreen Conway, a spokeswoman at United HealthCare, said, however, that Folick will accept a new position at the company. She said: “He will oversee operational execution and strategic planning” for 20 HMO plans that United HealthCare owns and manages, with more than 3 million members.
Conway said Folick will join the company at the end of October. United HealthCare, a fast-growing company flush with cash, also provides specialty-care products to 20 million people. In the six-month period ended June 30, the company had revenue of $1.8 billion. For the two quarters ended June 30, PacifiCare had revenue of $1.47 billion.
Folick joined PacifiCare Health Systems in December, 1989, as vice president of Secure Horizons, PacifiCare’s health plan for Medicare recipients. Thirteen months later, he became president of that division, which now has 290,000 members in California, and in May, 1992, he was appointed chief operating officer of PacifiCare of California.
Folick became president and CEO of PacifiCare of California the following April when the company selected a new management team. Since then, PacifiCare of California has added more than 100,000 members, helping boost the company’s systemwide membership to 1.26 million members and lifting the company’s revenue, earnings and stock price.
PacifiCare’s common stock has surged about 50% since April, closing Monday at $74.50 on Nasdaq trading.
Analysts said that Folick figures to leave PacifiCare with a handsome sum from the stock option plan given to key executives. They said Folick has a strong industry reputation, particularly in the Medicare business, and that he is moving to a bigger, more national operation with greater challenges.
“He is known as being a good manager and a good team leader,” said John Edelston, president of HealthPro Associates, a health-care consultant in Woodland Hills. “From a challenge standpoint, it’s got to be a feather in his career cap.”
