Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. made it official Wednesday when the health plan operator said it would participate in the federal government’s new Medicare prescription drug program.
In an expected move, PacifiCare said it would offer prescription drug coverage to people enrolled in the traditional, fee-for-service federal health plan for elderly and disabled Americans. It will start offering the benefit next January.
Prescription Solutions, PacifiCare’s Costa Mesa-based drug benefit operation, will help run the program through its mail-order facilities in northern San Diego County.
But the health plan operator also plans to set up another unit, called Prescription Advantage, to oversee the Medicare drug program. The company said it will build another mail-order drug distribution plant to handle the increased volume expected under the program.
That facility, which the company said wouldn’t be in California, is expected to be finished by mid-2006.
The new Medicare drug program was created in late 2003, when President Bush signed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Modernization and Improvement Act into law. The traditional Medicare program didn’t have a drug benefit since its inception in 1965.
People who already get drug benefits under PacifiCare’s Secure Horizons Medicare HMO plan will see their benefits rise, the company said.
