Purchase of Amil health service awaits state approval

Art Nadler

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 11:36 a.m.

Members' costs are not expected to increase when the health maintenance organization NevadaCare Inc. buys Amil International of Nevada.

The agreement, which was announced earlier this week, requires the approval of the Nevada Insurance Division. If approved, it could be finalized by either June or July.

In the agreement, NevadaCare Inc. would continue serving Amil's 17,000 members. Keith Beagle, president of NevadaCare, said Amil members will not have to give up their primary care physicians. He said NevadaCare's physicians' list mirrors Amil's and nearly doubles it in size.

NevadaCare presently has 2,843 physicians on its provider lists. Amil has 1,082 physicians.

Candis Lee Englant, a spokeswoman for Amil, said members' premiums are not expected to be affected at this time. She said nothing can be contemplated until the insurance division makes a decision.

"This is not a bailout," Englant said of Amil's departure from Nevada. "It's a basic decision that someone came up with a good business opportunity."

NevadaCare, which was incorporated in 1991, has its main office in Las Vegas and another in Reno. Its headquarters is in Tempe, Ariz. The company also does business in Iowa and Illinois.

Beagle said NevadaCare was attracted to Amil because it had a Medicaid member base of 4,000 people. He said NevadaCare plans to increase the number of Medicaid patients it has in Southern Nevada. Currently, it services 25,000 Medicaid patients throughout the state.

"In Clark County there are about 40,000 people eligible for Medicaid," Beagle said. "We expect to get about 30,000 of those people."

Englant said Amil will continue to process claims and move forward with the daily business of the company until the agreement is approved.

NevadaCare provides managed care to more than 500,000 members in the three states.

Amil began operations in Las Vegas in 1994. It currently does business in Austin, Texas and Miami.

In February, Amil announced that it was no longer going to do business with Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, MountainView Hospital, Sunrise Diagnostic Center and three Sunrise Health Strategies clinics and the Flamingo, Sahara and Las Vegas surgical centers after April 1. Beagle said NevadaCare planned to reinstate agreements will all the facilities.

In November, Sierra Health Services Inc., the largest health insurer in the state, attempted to acquire Amil, but talks fell through.