WellCare Health Plans

WellCare Health Plans, Inc. nyse|WCG began operations in 1985 and is based out of Tampa, Florida. WellCare provides Medicare (United States) and Medicaid managed care health plans for 2.3 million members. Wellcare partners with over 25,000 physicians and employs over 3,500 associates. Wellcare Health Plans, Inc. is the holding company for several subsidiaries, including WellCare, Staywell, HealthEase, Harmony, and PreferredOne. Regional offices are located in Miami, Florida; Manhattan, New York; North Haven, Connecticut; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Marietta, Georgia; and Chicago, Illinois. [ [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sec?s=WCG WCG: SEC Filings for WELLCARE HEALTHPLANS - Yahoo! Finance ] ]

History

Wellcare began operations in 1985 in Tampa, FL, as a Medicaid provider for the State of Florida. With the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, WellCare began offering Medicare beneficiaries private health insurance plans. These programs were known as Medicare+Choice or Part C plans. In 2003, WellCare began offering Medicare Advantage plans with prescription drug benefits after the signing of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act. In 2006, WellCare began offerring Medicare Medicare Part D plans and has since become one of the top 10 Part D insurance providers by membership volume for these types of plans.

On October 24th, 2007, law enforcement agents from the FBI, Department of Health and Human Services and the Florida Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit executed a search warrant on the premises of WellCare Health Plans' headquarters in Tampa, FL. Trading on WellCare's stock was halted on the news, but subsequently fell as low as 80% below the 52-week high. [http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-20512036.htm] The SEC has WellCare's financials under watch and several class-action lawsuits were launched against WellCare on behalf of shareholders. WellCare has said that its normal business operations have not been affected by the Federal and State investigations and that it remains financially sound, with over $1 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

Benefits Assessment

On November 16, 2007, HealthMetrix Research selected WellCare as a 2008 Senior Choice Gold Award recipient for its Medicare Advantage benefits plan. Recipients were selected from over 200 Medicare managed care plans based on cost-sharing comparisons including out-of-pocket costs in the areas of co-payments, deductibles and premiums. HealthMetrix Research Inc., a national independent managed care research firm, conducted its comparisons in over 120 cities across the United States in October 2007. Medicare Advantage plans were compared based on out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries based on health status categories and corresponding utilization of the most common plan benefits such as physician office visits, emergency or urgent care, hospital care, prevention care and prescriptions. The comparisons identified the Medicare plans with the lowest and highest estimated annual out-of-pocket costs based on the approved 2008 member co-payments, deductibles and premiums that appear in the Medicare Options Compare database. [ [http://www.medicarenewswatch.com medicare news watch health plans cost comparisons drug cards ] ]

HealthMetrix Research awarded WellCare best overall value in the design of its 2008 medical and prescription drug benefits for seniors in the following 21 markets:
*Buffalo, New York
*Rochester, New York
*Fort Lauderdale, Florida
*Essex County, New Jersey
*Hudson County, New Jersey
*Passaic County, New Jersey
*Union County, New Jersey
*Savannah, Georgia
*Akron-Canton, Ohio
*Cincinnati, Ohio
*Cleveland, Ohio
*Columbus, Ohio
*Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
*Chicago, Illinois
*South Bend, Indiana
*Fort Wayne, Indiana
*Indianapolis, Indiana
*New Orleans, Louisiana
*Baton Rouge, Louisiana
*Fort Worth, Texas
*San Antonio, Texas

Analyst coverage

See [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sa?s=WCG Yahoo! analyst coverage]
*Fidel, Scott (Deutsche Bank)
*Mcdonald, Carl (Oppenheimer & Co.)
*Nersessian, Gregory (Credit Suisse First Boston)
*Borsch, Matthew (Goldman Sachs)

References

External links

* [http://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2008/01/wellcare_health_could_go_on_th.php TheDeal: WellCare could go on the block]
* [http://www.wellcare.com/ Corporate web site]
* [http://cms.hhs.gov CMS official web site] at cms.hhs.gov
* [http://www.ssa.gov/history/lbjsm.html Medicare Is Signed Into Law] page from ssa.gov — material about the bill-signing ceremony
* [http://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html Historical Background and Development of Social Security] from ssa.gov — includes information about Medicare
* [http://www.ssa.gov/history/chrono.html Detailed Chronology of SSA] from ssa.gov — includes information about Medicare
* [http://www.ssa.gov/history/near65s.html Early Medicare poster] from ssa.gov