WellPoint Health Networks Inc. ranks among the largest publicly traded healthcare
insurers in the United States. Its approximately 6.6 million members nationwide
are served by two subsidiaries: Blue Cross of California and UNICARE. WellPoint
offers a comprehensive selection of healthcare products, including health maintenance
organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), point-of-service
plans (POS), self-insured employer sponsored programs, and specialty
plans for dental, optical, pharmacy, and mental health coverage. WellPoint's principal
products in California are the CaliforniaCare HMO and the Prudent Buyer
Plan PPO. The latter is the state's largest PPO with approximately 2.8 million
members served by a network of some 42,000 physicians and 443 hospitals. On the
national level, WellPoint's most important plans are the UNICARE Classic POS
modeled on the Prudent Buyer Plan and the UNICARE Health Plans HMO which as of
March 1998 was still in the early start-up stage.
WellPoint Health
Networks Inc. was organized in 1986 as the division responsible for the managed
healthcare operations of Blue Cross of California (BCC). BCC was founded in 1937
as a nonprofit corporation whose purpose was to provide residents of California
with quality, affordable medical coverage. For nearly 50 years it was successful
in this mission. In the mid-1980s, however, after a tumultuous period when
the cost of medical care increased rapidly, the group found itself in precarious
financial straits. As company CEO Leonard Schaeffer described the situation
in Health Affairs, "BCC's very existence was threatened." Blue Cross ran a $55
million deficit in 1986. The sale of its Woodland Hills, California headquarters
building provided temporary help, balancing out BCC's 1987 stock market and
underwriting losses. In April 1988 Schaeffer announced the worst was past. The
following August, however, the group reported second quarter losses of $20.5 million
and was only able to stave off insolvency at the end of the year when it
found a buyer for its TakeCare HMO and was able to book it at an increased value
in company books.
Type: Public Company
Address: 21555 Oxnard
Street, Woodland Hills, California 91367, U.S.A.
Telephone: (818) 703-4000
Web:
http://www.wellpoint.com
Employees: 10,100
Sales: $227.4 million
(1996)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: WLP
Incorporated:
1992
SIC: 6324 Hospital & Medical Service Plans; 6719 Holding Companies
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