Queen’s to sell
insurance unit

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By Lyn Danninger
Star-Bulletin

Queen's Health Systems completed a deal yesterday to sell its insurance subsidiary Queen's Health Plan Inc. to Health Net Federal Systems Inc., a managed care health insurer that already contracts with Queen's to serve military families in Hawaii under the federal government's Tricare program.

With the stock purchase agreement now signed, closure of the deal is set to take place June 30, said Paul Yamashita, president of Queen's Health Management, which oversees Queen's insurance business.

He declined to disclose the purchase price.

Yamashita said the change is unlikely to have any impact on the health plan's approximately 90,000 military dependent and retiree members.

"(Health Net) has been our prime contractor for the last five years. We know them very well and they know us very well," he said.

But Yamashita said some internal change will take place at Queen's Health Management.

"Organizationally, the Tricare staff will be split off from Queen's Health Management and become Health Net. It will involve about 50 people," he said.

The other 60 staff will remain under Queen's Health Management and continue to oversee Queen's Quest program and its third party administration contracts, which have about 44,000 members, Yamashita said.