PacifiCare’s Chief in California Resigns
In a casualty of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.’s troubled acquisition of former HMO rival FHP International Corp., Jon Wampler is resigning as head of PacifiCare’s key California operations, the Santa Ana-based health plan said Thursday.
The company named Brad A. Bowlus, a rising executive with a track record in financial turnarounds, to replace Wampler.
Financial results of the California plan--by far the company’s largest, with 2.4 million members--recently fell behind Wall Street expectations as regulatory approvals of the FHP purchase this year took longer than expected.
Wampler, 46, is moving to a newly created job in public affairs that will include policymaking and lobbying at the state and national level.
“We’ve been talking with Jon for months about what needed to be done” to meld the old FHP into the California business, said Alan Hoops, PacifiCare’s chairman and chief executive.
Wampler previously ran PacifiCare’s Texas health plan.
A California native, Bowlus, 42, has been president and chief executive of PacifiCare’s health plan in Washington state since last November. There, he oversaw the merging of the business systems of two health plans that PacifiCare acquired in 1994 and 1995.
Bowlus plans to press ahead with efforts to improve services to California members and hopes to boost national ratings on several quality-of-care categories, saying, “We want to assume a leadership role in every indicator.”
Last year, the company received average scores for its childhood immunizations, breast-cancer screenings, retinal exams for people with diabetes and anti-smoking programs, said a spokeswoman. It rated above-average for prenatal care and cervical cancer screenings.
Hoops said it will be a year before FHP’s former operations are absorbed.
The company is now working to convert FHP’s 850,000 members to PacifiCare plans, including 650,000 on commercial plans. The company is also in the midst of marketing to many corporate plans up for renewal on Jan. 1. The changeover for all 200,000 seniors on FHP’s managed Medicare plan is also effective Jan. 1.
