Oxford Health Plans Inc

Stock options--the de facto currency of Silicon Valley and the fastest-growing corporate reward for work well done--may look more like Monopoly money to some in the wake of this week's market turmoil. For five years now, U.S. companies have showered on employees and executives the option to buy shares in the future at a preset price--and profit on any interim run-ups.

Stocks of health maintenance organizations took a lashing Wednesday after California's giant public employee pension fund said it would seek a 5% reduction in insurance premiums for its members next year. While some analysts expressed doubts that the California Public Employees Retirement System will be able to negotiate such a large reduction, the news sparked a broad selloff among managed care stocks, even among firms that do not do business in California.

MetLife Inc., the No. 1 U.S. life insurer, said Tuesday its third-quarter earnings fell because of $208 million of claims from the Sept. 11 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center. The New York-based company's third-quarter net income fell to $162 million, or 21 cents a share, from $241 million, or 31 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 1.5% to $8.07 billion from $7.95 billion. MetLife's results also reflect a $12-million expense related to a cost-cutting plan.

Aetna Inc., the nation's largest health insurer, said Thursday it will cut 6,000 jobs, or roughly 16% of its work force, as it continues struggling to digest its acquisitions of the 1990s. Aetna's latest move follows 5,000 other job cuts it has announced already this year and a third-quarter loss of $54.4 million. About 4,400 of the latest reductions will come through layoffs, with the other 1,600 through attrition.

Tuesday's intraday market plunge seemed a distant memory Thursday as analysts and investors alike were in a bullish mood. Goldman Sachs & Co. came out with a "Super Seven" list of tech names it calls "core holdings" for a volatile market, and five of the stocks finished higher. The list features electronic commerce specialist First Data Corp. (ticker symbol: FDC), software developer Oracle Corp. (ORCL), electronic systems maker Teradyne Inc.

MedPartners Inc. shares plummeted 45% on Thursday after its planned $8-billion takeover by rival PhyCor Inc. collapsed. Adding to the slide was the company's warning of a fourth-quarter loss and speculation among some analysts that MedPartners' financial woes could worsen. MedPartners stock plummeted $8.17 to close at $10 on the New York Stock Exchange; PhyCor sank $1.63 to close at $24.88 on Nasdaq.

Shares of major health-maintenance organizations and health insurers, including PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. in Santa Ana, fell sharply Thursday after a report that prominent lawyers planned to file class-action lawsuits to compel HMOs to provide better health care or risk massive court judgments. Among the attorneys taking aim at HMOs is David Boies of New York, the man now heading the federal government's antitrust action against Microsoft Corp., and Richard Scruggs, a Pascagoula, Miss.

Kaiser Permanente, the giant Oakland-based health plan, continued to lose money during the third quarter of 1999, but at a much slower rate than a year ago. The losses, reported Tuesday, were stemmed in part by double-digit premium increases that took effect last January. Similar increases led to improved results for several for-profit health plans, including Cigna Corp. and Maxicare Health Plans Inc. The improved results propelled sagging health-care stocks upward in trading Tuesday.

Aetna Inc.'s already battered stock plunged 12% Thursday after the giant insurer said one of its key health-care executives abruptly quit and that its profit is still trailing expectations. The stock has plummeted 40% in just the last five months--wiping out nearly $7 billion of its investors' holdings--as Aetna has suffered one unexpected setback after another in 1997. Most of the problems relate to Aetna's purchase last year of U.S. Healthcare Inc. for $8.

Rallies in the stock and bond markets ran out of steam late in the session Tuesday as market players worried about the direction of interest rates and trade friction between the United States and Japan. The Dow Jones average lost 8.64 points to 4,542.61 after advancing as much as 20 points earlier in the session. In the broader market, declining issues narrowly outnumbered advances on the New York Stock Exchange.