Wisconsin Physicians Service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Contents |
[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.