California Dental Health Plan

Following a trend toward managed care in all health fields, California Dental Health Plan, a dental health-maintenance organization based in Tustin, said Monday that it has created a preferred provider organization of 3,000 dentists. Dentists across Southern California are feeling the pinch of the recession because of widespread layoffs at companies that usually contract with them for employee benefits, said James R. Lindsey, president of California Dental Health.

* Lee J. Harris has been appointed vice president of provider relations for California Dental Health Plan, a Tustin provider of dental and optometric plans. He succeeds Manley I. Gray II, who left the company in December. Harris was formerly director of dental relations, Western region, for Prudential DMO. Before that he was director of professional education at Safeguard Health Plans in Anaheim.

Two major Orange County health care providers announced separate acquisitions Tuesday, further fueling the fast pace of mergers and consolidations among medical firms seeking to add muscle to compete under national health care reform. The biggest of the two deals involves the smaller companies: Abbey Healthcare Group, a Costa Mesa maker of home health care equipment and drugs, said it will pay $197 million--mostly in cash--to purchase Total Pharmaceutical Care Inc. of Torrance.

* Lee J. Harris has been appointed vice president of provider relations for California Dental Health Plan, a Tustin provider of dental and optometric plans. He succeeds Manley I. Gray II, who left the company in December. Harris was formerly director of dental relations, Western region, for Prudential DMO. Before that he was director of professional education at Safeguard Health Plans in Anaheim.

California Dental Health Plan, a Tustin-based provider of dental insurance and prepaid dental care programs, has begun offering most of its California customers a choice of benefits so that they can tailor dental plans to fit their needs and their pocketbooks. The so-called menu approach, introduced Tuesday, will allow employers and other insured groups to pick and choose from a potpourri of dental benefits, such as different deductible and maximum pay-out amounts.

Two major Orange County health care providers announced separate acquisitions Tuesday, further fueling the fast pace of mergers and consolidations among medical firms seeking to add muscle to compete under national health care reform. The biggest of the two deals involves the smaller companies: Abbey Healthcare Group, a Costa Mesa maker of home health care equipment and drugs, said it will pay $197 million--mostly in cash--to purchase Total Pharmaceutical Care Inc. of Torrance.

Two major Southern California health care providers announced separate acquisitions Tuesday, further fueling the fast pace of consolidation among medical firms seeking to add muscle to compete under national health care reform. The larger of the two deals involves the smaller companies: Abbey Healthcare Group, a Costa Mesa maker of home health care equipment and drugs, said it will pay $197 million--mostly cash--to purchase Total Pharmaceutical Care Inc. of Torrance.

Manley I. Gray II has been appointed vice president of provider relations for California Dental Health Plan in Tustin. He will be responsible for relations with the company's 1,200 contracting dental offices and for the company's 150-office optometric panel. Previously, Gray was vice president of marketing and sales for Health Management Systems Inc. in Colorado Springs, Colo.

California Dental Health Plan of Tustin said earnings for its fiscal 1987 dipped 2.5% to $249,081 from $255,377 for the previous fiscal year. Revenue for the 12 months ended March 31 rose 23%, however, to $6.6 million from $5.3 million a year earlier. The company attributed the higher revenues largely to the introduction of two new dental plan programs and blamed the costs of an "aggressive expansion program" for the earnings drop.

Two major Southern California health care providers announced separate acquisitions Tuesday, further fueling the fast pace of consolidation among medical firms seeking to add muscle to compete under national health care reform. The larger of the two deals involves the smaller companies: Abbey Healthcare Group, a Costa Mesa maker of home health care equipment and drugs, said it will pay $197 million--mostly cash--to purchase Total Pharmaceutical Care Inc. of Torrance.

Following a trend toward managed care in all health fields, California Dental Health Plan, a dental health-maintenance organization based in Tustin, said Monday that it has created a preferred provider organization of 3,000 dentists. Dentists across Southern California are feeling the pinch of the recession because of widespread layoffs at companies that usually contract with them for employee benefits, said James R. Lindsey, president of California Dental Health.

California Dental Health Plan, a Tustin-based provider of dental insurance and prepaid dental care programs, has begun offering most of its California customers a choice of benefits so that they can tailor dental plans to fit their needs and their pocketbooks. The so-called menu approach, introduced Tuesday, will allow employers and other insured groups to pick and choose from a potpourri of dental benefits, such as different deductible and maximum pay-out amounts.

California Dental Health Plan said its unaudited figures show a profit of $247,360 for the fiscal year ended March 31, up a scant 1.1% from the privately held company's fiscal 1985 earnings of $244,662. Revenue totaled $5.3 million, up 25.7% from the $4.2 million that Tustin-based California Dental reported for its 1985 fiscal year. Company officials said the success of a product development program was the biggest factor in the jump in revenue.

Western Dental Services Inc., a large dental health maintenance company, hired an industry veteran Tuesday as its new chief executive to help manage its growth and boost profits. Robert C. Schur, a former chief operating executive of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.'s dental plan, replaced Michael Silva, a consultant who had held the posts of president and chief executive on a temporary basis since February 1995, according to a Western Dental official.