Health Net To Expand Medicare Areas Health Net, Inc. will be expanding its Medicare Advantage service areas in 2008, subject to approval by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. For the third consecutive year, Health Net will undertake a major outreach effort to help people who qualify for Medicare better understand how to manage their health care needs, company officials said. Medicare Advantage is the program for Medicare managed care that includes HMOs, PPOs and private fee-for-service products. “We are excited about the opportunity to expand our service areas in 2008,” said Mark El-Tawil, Health Net’s chief senior products officer. “As part of that expansion and in our current markets, we are committed to helping people who qualify for Medicare find the product that best meets their health care coverage needs. Ultimately, we want to make our product choices easy to understand and to help consumers make confident health care coverage decisions during the next Medicare enrollment period.” “We will use our innovative Medicare stores as well as community seminars, direct mail and our Medicare hotlines to provide information on our service areas, product choices, benefits, enrollment times and much more,” he said. The program covers out-of-pocket costs for Medicare-covered services and provides additional benefits that are not covered under the traditional Medicare program. In an analysis done by CMS, people enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans last year saved an average of $82 per month compared to traditional Medicare beneficiaries. At the end of the first quarter of 2007, Health Net had approximately 233,000 members enrolled in Medicare Advantage Plans and 341,000 members in Medicare Part D programs. Enrollment for 2008 begins Nov. 15, 2007. Santa Clarita Planning Recognized The city of Santa Clarita received two honors from the Los Angeles section of the American Planning Association and will be recognized at a ceremony at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Cathedral Plaza on June 12. The city’s Downtown Newhall Specific Plan won first place in this year’s Los Angeles area APA awards, and the Sign Compliance Program received a merit award. The Downtown Newhall Specific Plan was awarded a first-place Planning Excellence Award for best practice. Because the Downtown Newhall Specific Plan took first place, the city will now be competing at the state level. The plan is a form-based code that is designed to invigorate downtown Newhall. It calls for mixed-use development that allows commercial and residential developments to co-exist on the same parcel of land. The city’s Sign Compliance Program received a merit award for planning excellence in implementation for a large jurisdiction in the final phase of the sign compliance program. The program was started to improve the appearance of the community and reduce competitive streetscape signage clutter along the city’s roadway corridors. Sale of OCP Shares Closes Oplink Communications, Inc. closed on its purchase of a majority share of fiber optic components manufacturer Optical Communications Products, Inc. The Furukawa Electric Co. sold its 58 percent share in Woodland Hills-based OCP for $1.50 per share payable in cash and Oplink stock. Oplink is expected to purchase the remaining shares of OCP at $1.65 per share and close that deal within the third quarter of 2007. With Oplink holding a majority share of OCP, the future of the Valley company is up in the air. Following the April announcement of a deal between Oplink and Furukawa, the OCP board adopted a “poison pill” provision to delay the buyout. Oplink in turn filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of that provision. But in late May, Furukawa added members to the OCP board that guaranteed the sale of OCP to Oplink would go through.