Loss of contract spurs layoffs at claims processing company. (Health Care).

MERIDIAN Health Care Management Inc., stung by the loss of a large contract, laid off 49 workers last month and is expecting to lay off another 26 employees in August, according to layoff notices it has filed with the state Employment Development Department.

Officials of Meridian, a Woodland Hillsbased managed care services company, refused to discuss the layoffs, but they come at a time when the company is losing a contract it had with PacificCare Health Systems Inc.

Meridian has been assisting the Cypressbased insurer process claims since it switched two years ago to shared risk contracts with hospitals and medical groups from partial risk agreements, said Cheryl Randolph, a PacifiCare spokeswoman.

The switch shifted risk and claims volume associated with medical care to PacifiCare and from the providers. The company brought in Meridian to help handle the higher volume, but at the same time began building a staff to bring the work entirely in-house. Randolph said PacifiCare's contract with Meridian is now winding down, but could not give an exact date when it would terminate.

County Care

A new survey shows that the working poor who rely on the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services for medical care are not seeking out the government aid to which they are entitled.

The UCLA survey of about 2,500 patients served by the health department and its network of private clinics found that more than half the adults had annual household income under $10,000, yet many did not apply for aid.

Only 52 percent had applied for Medi-Cal, with the majority who had not applied believing they were not eligible. A third thought they would have to pay the money back, while nearly 29 percent simply shunned such programs out of dislike for them and 22 percent feared deportation. (Sixty-eight percent of the patients were born outside the United States.)

Another finding: nearly 40 percent of the patients were employed, yet only 10 percent received commercial health coverage from either their or their spouse's employer.

The survey was conducted last year as part of an effort to overcome barriers to care among the poor.

Healthy WellPoint

WellPoint Health Networks Inc. quietly passed a major milestone earlier this year when it vaulted past Aetna Inc. to become the nation's No. 2 health insurer.

The Thousand Oaks-based company now has 13.5 million medical group members, topping Aetna's 13.1 million. Most of WellPoint's growth over the past several years has come through acquisitions.

The planned $906 million purchase of Cobalt Corp., a Milwaukee-based Blues plan that would add 800,000 members, is awaiting regulatory approval and expected to be completed by the end of the year.

WellPoint still has 6 million fewer members than top dog UnitedHealth Group.

Staff reporter Laurence Darmiento can be reached at [phone] ext. 237 or at [e-mail].