Partnership Health Plan of California, a Fairfield-based managed Medi-Cal administrator, is perhaps the fastest growing company in the health care sector, just about doubling in size and vastly expanding its service area.
In the past two years, the nonprofit health plan has gone from 280 employees to 325 employees. Earlier this year, Partnership said it plans to add an additional 100 employees on top of that to accommodate deep expansion into Northern California.
Partnership currently manages Medi-Cal in Solano, Napa, Marin, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties, but is set to expand into a much broader area up north, including: Humboldt, Trinity, Del Norte, Lassen, Modoc, Shasta and Siskiyou counties.
The newly added counties will add approximately 100,000 new members to the health plan, on top of its current 200,000 members.
Partnership’s reimbursement to physicians includes a fee-for-service payment, capitation and additional incentives for taking on Medi-Cal recipients, versus a predetermined, non-negotiable state reimbursement.
It’s one of six such County Organized Health Systems that contract with the state to manage Medi-Cal patients and has annual budget of $928 million.***
Novato-based Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp. this year relocated its headquarters to a 31,000 square-foot space at 7 Hamilton Landing after growing its pipeline and outgrowing its previous space of 20,000 square feet.
Over the past 12 months, Raptor has nearly tripled in size, from 18 employees a year ago to about 50 now .The new space will be for corporate headquarters and not manufacturing Procysbi, its flagship drug, or other drugs in Raptor’s pipeline, which are outsourced to a third-party manufacturer.
Raptor signed a seven-year lease for the new space, formerly occupied by Walt Disney Corp., and plans to move into by mid-2014. The developer of treatments for rare diseases, started in 2005 by former BioMarin executives, has outgrown its current 20,000-square-foot offices at 9 Commercial Blvd. and needs new space to accommodate a steady increase in employees.***
Western Health Advantage, which received approval to expand into three North Bay counties earlier this year, has been steadily adding new members to its health plan.
The Sacramento-based HMO intends on participating in both the employer and individual health insurance exchanges, also known as Covered California, established under ObamaCare, which could help it further grow its membership.
The arrival of Western Health was viewed by many as a critical point for the region’s providers, particularly independent district hospitals that have struggled for their share of insured patients without a viable health plan for employer groups.
Brokers and providers also hope that the injection of new competition into the region might lead to lower cost increases on employer premiums, which have spiked as the cost of health care steadily increased.
