Rumors fly over replacement for Mendoza; HASC gets new voice.

Late last summer I reported that Rich Cordova, administrator of San Francisco General Hospital and former administrator of L.A. County+USC Medical Center, was the lead candidate to become new director of Los Angeles County's Department of Health Services.

Well, unless Cordova had changed his name to Mark Finucane and clandestinely ran Contra Costa County's health services department for many years, I was wrong.

Undaunted, I will go out on a limb regarding the replacement for state Department of Corporations Commissioner Gary Mendoza, who has departed to join Mayor Richard Riordan's administration. That post, politically obscure but quite powerful, is based in L.A., and oversees all health maintenance organizations doing business in California.

The candidate in question? Sources say the person in the lead for the job is A. Peter Kezirian Jr., the DOC's general counsel. He was unavailable for comment last week.

There's little information about Kezirian circulating. He is an attorney, and previously practiced with the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton before joining the DOC. He also serves on the board of governors of the Bachelors social organization.

Gov. Pete Wilson is to name Mendoza's replacement soon, according to sources.

Greene in for Langness: There are no rumors floating around as to who will head the communications department at the Healthcare Association of Southern California now that David Langness has left to take an executive position at spinoff company COHR Inc., a medical equipment supplier and refurbisher that went public last month. HASC is COHR's majority shareholder.

Langness' replacement is an inside hire: Brian Greene, who is editor of News Briefs, a weekly newsletter published jointly by HASC and the California Healthcare Association. Greene also edits some affiliated HASC publications and marketing materials. He will become director of communications once a replacement has been found for his current position.

Prior to joining HASC, Greene held corporate communications jobs at the former Security Pacific Corp. and Avery Dennison Corp. He was also a business reporter and editor with the San Gabriel Valley-Tribune.

All roads lead to ... : They're called "road shows" in the executive suite: routine but often onerous journeys by a CEO and other senior executives to brokerage firms in New York, Boston and elsewhere. Analysts are chatted up, and encouraging news or rumor-dispelling bluntness is dispensed. It's all in the name of the relentless business of boosting or stabilizing stock prices.

Health Systems International Inc. did what could be called an anti-road show last month: On Feb. 22, a herd of 38 analysts traveled to the Warner Center Marriott near the giant health plan's Woodland Hills headquarters for a day-long meeting with HSI senior executives.

It was the first such meeting on HSI turf since the company was formed with the merger of Health Net and Qual-Med in 1994.

HSI Chairman, CEO and President Malik Hasan was present, along with Michael Gallagher, CEO of Health Net.

"Basically, our intention was to reintroduce Health Systems (to the financial community) to clear the cobwebs. They had sort of lumped us together with Blue Cross (of California)," said spokesman Don Prial, in reference to the proposed merger between HSI and Blue Cross for-profit subsidiary WellPoint Health Networks - a deal that lingered for most of 1995 before it collapsed.

Various presentations were made by Hasan, Gallagher and the rest of the executive staff, followed by fairly intense question-and-answer sessions, Prial said.

Among the topics for discussion: HSI's initiatives to improve quality, and the expansion of its business on the East Coast since it acquired M.D. Enterprises Inc., a Connecticut-based HMO, last year.

On-hand analysts included some heavy hitters: Todd B. Richter of Dean Witter Reynolds in New York and Ed Keaney of San Francisco-based Volpe Welty & Co., among others.

Apparently, the meeting proved - at least in the short term - a tonic for HSI stock, even as the market has traveled downward in recent days.

On that Thursday, it moved up 75 cents, to $34.875 a share. On Friday, it upticked 37.5 cents. On Monday, it moved up a full point, to $36.25 a share. It hit its year-high price of $36.375 last Tuesday.

Credit when due: Woodland Hills-based Blue Cross of California has extended a $1 million unsecured line of credit to the Local Initiative Health Authority of Los Angeles County.

Nicknamed "Lilac," the Health Authority will cobble together a network of health plans to provide care to local Medi-Cal recipients. California is in the midst of switching to less expensive managed care for its Medi-Cal patients as a cost-saving measure.

"This credit arrangement is an important step for the health authority in establishing the necessary financial credit resources to complete development of our HMO infrastructure," said Anthony Rodgers, its CEO.

The Health Authority is to start accepting enrollees in December.