Molina's Medicaid Health Plans Receive Honors

Long Beach-based Molina Healthcare of California, a managed care plan for low-income families that only recently established a presence in San Diego, has ranked among the top Medicaid plans in the United States.

U.S. News & World Report magazine and the National Committee for Quality Assurance,

Molina's Utah plan ranked 13th, Molina New Mexico placed No. 24, and Molina of Washington ranked No. 31.

This summer, Molina, which markets its plan toward minority customers, purchased 71,000 members from San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare for $25 million and 12,000 from Signal Hill-based Universal Care, Inc. for $6.2 million. The acquisitions mean Molina now manages care for the second largest number of Medi-Cal and Healthy Families members in San Diego County. Molina's San Diego location was not ranked on the list because the magazine needed at least a year of data, said Juan Jose Orellana, director of investor relations at Molina.

Thousand Oaks-based Blue Cross of California's HMO was the topranking California plan on the Medicaid list, which was published in the magazine's Oct. 3 issue. The plan ranked No. 34.

The list was compiled based on several criteria, including access to care, treatment quality and preventive services. For a complete list of rankings for Medicaid, Medicare as well as commercial plans, go to http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/besthealthinsurance/topplans.htm.