WellCare Health Plans Inc., a managed care company, named a new executive chairman and president/CEO late last week.
Charles G. Berg was named executive chairman and Heath Schiesser as president and CEO.
The company simultaneously announced the resignations of Todd Farha, its previous chairman of the board, CEO and president; Paul Behrens, its CFO; and Thaddeus Bereday, its general counsel.
The moves were made "in the best long-term interest of the company" and to provide new leadership, the company said.
Investors boosted the price of WellCare's stock in trading Monday about 11 percent to $48.08 at the close. By midday Tuesday, the stock's price had fallen to about $46.75. The company's stock had been trading for as much as $125 a share in early October.
The moves come almost three months after the company's headquarters was raided by officers from state and federal agencies on October 24, an action believed to be connected to a whistle-blower lawsuit related to the company's Medicaid business.
WellCare said the raid involved representatives of the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the inspector general's office of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Medicaid fraud control unit of Florida's attorney general's office.
After the raid, Farha said the company was dedicated to full compliance with the investigation. "This investigation is having no impact on the delivery of any healthcare, continue to claims in a timely manner," he said. "We also anticipate the trading in our securities will resume."
WellCare provides managed care services exclusively for government-sponsored healthcare programs, focusing on Medicaid and Medicare. The company serves 2.3 million members nationwide.
In response to the raid, the company appointed a special committee of the board of directors to conduct an independent investigation "into matters raised as part of the ongoing investigation and inquiries by certain federal and state agencies," a November 2 press release said.
Berg, 50, has been a senior advisor to Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a private equity firm. Before that, he had held executive positions with Oxford Health Plans Inc. Schiesser previously served as WellCare's senior vice president for marketing and sales and president of WellCare Prescription Insurance.
Other news reports said WellCare is late in filing quarterly and year-end statements with the Security and Exchange Commission.