Front Page || Main Index || Corpus Christi News || Business || Texas || Sports || Entertainment || Selena
Friday, Aug. 14, 1998
Acquisition of Principal Health Care complete
United plans no job cuts at firm's Corpus Christi headquarters
By JEFFREY TOMICH
Staff WriterMinnesota-based United HealthCare has completed its acquisition of Principal Health Care of Texas, a 38,000-member health plan headquartered in Corpus Christi, the companies announced Thursday.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
The acquisition was completed just days after United's $6.3 billion bid to purchase rival Humana Inc. fell through. That deal was mutually called off days after United announced it took a $900 million charge that caused its stock price to plunge.
United, currently the second-largest health maintenance organization in the country, announced it had agreed to purchase Principal in the spring - a month before the Humana deal was announced.
United has said it doesn't plan any immediate changes to Principal's existing HMO and will honor all existing contracts. United also indicated that it will absorb all of the 100 or so employees at Principal's Corpus Christi headquarters, located at 555 N. Carancahua St.
United is a nationwide managed-care company covering about 12 million people. Its Texas unit already has health plans in Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.
Principal, formed in 1994, has more than 1,200 physicians, 27 hospitals and 80 pharmacies in its 22-county South Texas network.
The company started in 1984 as Coastal Bend Health Plan, a physician-owned HMO. In 1994, the plan was bought by Principal Health Care, part of the Principal Financial Group.
Staff writer Jeffrey Tomich can be reached at 886-4316 or by e-mail at tomichj@scripps.comPost your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web