Why Western Health Advantage?

Western Health Advantage (WHA) is a relatively new health plan providing healthcare services to commercial subscribers, Medi-Cal beneficiaries, and Medicare beneficiaries in Sacramento, Yolo, Solano, El Dorado, and Placer counties in Northern California. While it is state-licensed by the California State Department of Managed Health Care to do business as a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), it is a radical departure from most of the managed care companies that exist today.

WHA offers patients, physicians and purchasers a model of managed care that emphasizes access to care, instead of obstacles to treatment, and puts healthcare before stock values. The WHA Advantage Referral is a unique program; it enables WHA members to be referred easily to any specialist or hospital in the WHA network. We feature some of the region's premier health facilities, giving our members access to over 600 primary care physicians and more than 1,000 specialty care providers.

We also maintain a complete network of referral physicians who have admitting privileges at some of the top facilities in the region. This new health plan, created and sponsored by Mercy Healthcare Sacramento, University of California, Davis Health System, and NorthBay Healthcare System, is a non-profit, mutual benefit corporation directed by physician and hospital organizations.

WHA emphasizes customer service and quality care as its most important mission. Local providers who believe that healthcare can be delivered in a managed care environment without sacrificing service, quality and fair reimbursement for the providers who deliver the care were an integral part of the creation process. It is an attempt to balance the need to control the cost of care with the need to provide quality healthcare in a compassionate manner.

The sponsoring providers of WHA feel that the value of managed care, coupled with their strong commitment to strengthen the patient-physician relationship, will redefine managed care and will fill a need in the marketplace. They believe that this new model of managed care will be welcomed by providers who have a commitment to quality care and provide an alternative model to provide patient care at equitable and reasonable reimbursement levels. They believe that both consumers and purchasers will embrace a model of managed care that remains affordable but eases restrictions on both providers and patients.