Wisconsin Physicians Service

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Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation
Type of Company Private
Founded Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1946)
Headquarters Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Key people Ray Koenig, First President
Jim Riordan, President & CEO
Bill Bathke, Executive VP & COO
Eugene Nordby, Board Chairman
Industry Insurance
Employees 4,200
Website www.wpsic.com

Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation (WPS) is a non-profit service insurance corporation based in Madison, Wisconsin. WPS offers commercial health insurance products in the state of Wisconsin and provides insurance claims processing services under various U.S. Government contracts. In addition, WPS has subsidiary corporations in the life insurance, temporary staffing and technology consulting lines of business.

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[edit] History

Wisconsin Physicians Service was established in 1946 as a division of the State Medical Society. In 1975 the Wisconsin legislature passed legislation requiring that service insurance corporations be legally separate from the parent professional society[1]. In order to comply with this new regulation, Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation was established and incorporated on April 27, 1977.

[edit] Medicare

WPS became involved in the Medicare program in 1966, the year Medicare was established, as the Medicare Part B administrator for the state of Wisconsin. WPS has continued in that role, and has acquired additional contracts from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide Part B administration in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.

In 2005 WPS and Mutual of Omaha announced a partnership for future Medicare contracts[2]. Under this agreement, Mutual of Omaha's Medicare Part A division will be transferred to WPS for an undisclosed sum of money. This will allow WPS to compete for the new Medicare Administrative Contract (MAC) regions, which requires combined Part A and Part B administration. Previously, CMS awarded separate Part A and Part B contracts by state.

[edit] TRICARE

As of August, 2006, WPS has contracts with the Department of Defense TRICARE Management Activity, TriWest Healthcare Alliance and Humana Military Healthcare Services to provide TRICARE claims administration functions. These functions include claims processing and customer service for the TRICARE West Region, TRICARE Overseas and TRICARE for Life.

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