PacifiCare to Announce Medicare Cutbacks

PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., the No. 1 operator of Medicare health-maintenance organizations, is expected to announce today that it plans to stop offering its Secure Horizons Medicare HMO plan in some markets. The Santa Ana-based company said it will release a statement that discusses changes in the Secure Horizons program that will take effect next year. It has until July 1 to let the federal government’s Medicare program know if it wants to pull out of any markets.

PacifiCare this year stopped offering Medicare products in parts of California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Washington where it had 26,000 members. The company and other HMOs left some markets, saying premiums were too low for the plans to be profitable. PacifiCare officials declined to comment on the changes, saying they wanted to discuss them first with company employees.

PacifiCare currently insures close to 1 million Medicare recipients in nine states, including California.

Other health plans are also expected to scale back their Medicare participation as a result of a 1997 law that squeezed $22 billion from their reimbursements over five years.