FHP Gets Nippon Life Contract Covering 1,650 Firms

FHP International Corp. said Monday it has been selected to offer managed health-care benefits to more than 1,650 Japanese companies headquartered in California.

FHP, a pioneer HMO that has undergone organizational upheavals in recent weeks, said it will be the first HMO offered through NLI Insurance Agency Inc., a subsidiary of the 106-year-old Nippon Life Insurance Agency Inc.

It will be several months before FHP can gauge the amount of the business the new deal will generate, spokeswoman Ria Marie Carlson said.

About 700 of the California-based Japanese companies with Nippon Life have more than 100 employees, Carlson said. The firm’s U.S. division, founded in 1984, is based in New York and has offices in Los Angeles and Chicago.

FHP, one of the nation’s five largest HMOs, has undergone a corporate reorganization in recent months that included layoffs of 500 administrative employees.