Deal Watch: PacificSource smiles wider with acquisitions

IN A SPAN of less than one week, Eugene’s PacificSource Health Plans added more than 63,000 customers to its books, pushing the total number of people it covers in Oregon and Idaho through its individual and group health and dental plans — and its self-insured business — to more than 210,000.

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BY JON BELL

IN A SPAN of less than one week, Eugene’s PacificSource Health Plans added more than 63,000 customers to its books, pushing the total number of people it covers in Oregon and Idaho through its individual and group health and dental plans — and its self-insured business — to more than 210,000.

And no, it wasn’t because the masses were stampeding away from talk of President Obama’s public option.

Instead, PacificSource’s spike came from two acquisitions that will add some $65 million a year to the nonprofit’s current $500 million intake.

The first, announced July 28, involved Advantage Dental Plan’s commercial business. The $3.5 million deal put the Redmond dental insurance plan’s 35,000 commercial customers in the hands of PacificSource.

Less than a week later, PacificSource picked up Primary Health, an integrated health care delivery system in Boise, Idaho. Terms of that deal were not disclosed, but it did expand PacificSource’s membership by 16,500 Idahoans with group and individual health plans and 12,600 members covered through self-funded employee benefit plans.

“Both of these acquisitions help us to continue establishing ourselves as more of a regional carrier,” says PacificSource president Ken Provencher, noting that PacificSource is now probably among the top five largest insurance companies in Oregon.

He says the more robust company will have a bigger revenue stream to help meet fixed costs. It will also be able to better serve larger accounts that have come about as a result of recent consolidation. One example: school districts that have pooled together to buy insurance.

PacificSource’s strategy for continued growth includes new markets, like Washington, and possibly other acquisitions. In addition, the company hopes to grow its Medicaid and Medicare business and otherwise respond to what Provencher terms a “transforming market.”

“We just need to make sure we’re positioned to appeal to any and all new ways of selling” health insurance in a market that’s undergoing a transformation, says Provencher.

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