Arizona company Hawaii's shrinking health insurance market will get a boost in the coming months with the arrival of Hawaii Health Management Solutions, a subsidiary of Arizona-based Information Management Solutions Inc.
to enter isle health
insurance market
Information Management Solutions'
Backgrounder
subsidiary begins hiring for
local positions this week
By Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.comThe company, which will begin recruiting employees and hold interviews in Honolulu Wednesday and Thursday, said it plans to establish a new health care operations center in Honolulu and begin operations in January.
Initially Hawaii Health Management Solutions will provide claims processing and administration services for self-insured health plans such as union trust funds.
Information Management Solutions provides a range of administration services and health care plans to about 800,000 people in several mainland states through its health care management subsidiary, HMA Inc., and other subsidiaries.
Hawaii Health Management Solutions will be part of HMA, said Todd Meeks, Information Management Solutions vice president.
Meeks is also chief executive officer and president of another Information Management Solutions subsidiary, health insurer NevadaCare.
Meeks declined to say if the company had secured any contracts in Hawaii yet.
But at least two union health care trust funds, now serviced by ailing health insurer University Health Alliance, will be up for bid in coming months. In addition, the state's Medicaid program is now seeking bids to manage its Quest health insurance plan.
Meeks declined to say whether Hawaii Health Management Systems will put in a bid for the upcoming Quest contracts but notes that the company has extensive experience in that arena.
"We are the largest Medicaid management plan in Nevada and the second largest in Iowa," he said. "It's something we feel we're very good at."
Meeks said the company plans to initially start up with nine new positions in Honolulu and will expand as business grows.
"We'll have a local service center in Honolulu with on-site medical management, customer service, provider service and client service handled on Oahu. Claims processing will be handled in Las Vegas," he said.
Eventually, the company hopes to move beyond the administration services it will initially offer and expand to a full range of health care products and services in Hawaii, Meeks said.
"Our goal would be to introduce all of our company's product lines assuming the time is right," said Meeks.
The range of health care products includes health maintenance organizations, preferred provider plans, prescription benefit management plans, pharmacy delivery systems and information services.
Meeks, who has previous experience in Hawaii's health care market when he worked for local insurer HMAA in the mid 1990s, said his company had been considering expansion to Hawaii for some time.
"As an organization, we have been looking at the Hawaii market for a number of years."
Name: Information Management Systems Inc. New health care player
Headquarters: Tempe, Ariz.
Chairman and CEO: J.D. Dyer
Web site: imxinc.com
Business: The International Management Solutions companies provide and manage a range of health care insurance products in several states, including Arizona, Nevada and Iowa.
Products: Include health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, point-of-service plans, health care and pharmacy delivery systems, prescription benefit management plans and information services all provided through a number of subsidiaries. There are about 35,000 participating providers and 50,000 pharmacies in the company's network.
Subsidiaries: In 1991, the company formed Health Management Solutions, an insurance holding company and established its primary business, NevadaCare Inc., which serves both Medicaid and commercial customers. NevadaCare is the largest Medicaid management plan in Nevada and also second largest HMO in the state. In 1991, International Management Solutions purchased HMA Inc. to focus on its Medicaid managed care business. HMA Inc. now also offers administration services for self-funded employer and union groups.