Howard Davis, who was one of the chief architects of the managed care concept, has died. The long-time Long Beach, Calif resident helped develop and popularize HMOs in the early 1960s then started his own company, Universal Care in 1983. That company now does business under the name, Brand New Day, which is a Medicare Advantage prescription health plan headquartered in Garden Grove, Calif and available in 12 California counties. The company is run today by his family including sons, Jeff and Jay B. Davis.
Davis helped innovate the health maintenance organization (HMO) concept when he began his career in 1963. At that time he served as an executive for Family Health Plan (FHP) and, while there, secured the first pre-paid Medi-Cal contract in California. Upon leaving FHP in 1969, he branched out as a consultant where he was responsible for evaluating HMO grant applications for the Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) Region IX in San Francisco. In addition, he worked for other HMOs where he was involved in developing their enrollment teams, assisting with commercial marketing programs, recruiting physicians and contracting with outside providers. In 1970, he became vice president of a company that later became Cigna Health Plans. Then in 1983, he established Universal Care.
During his career, Davis was honored for his business acumen countless times and even earned Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award for health care in Los Angeles in 1995 and was nominated in the magazine’s socially responsible category in 1993 and 1994. He also was honored with the prestigious Community Health Services Award by the Black American Political Association of California for his long-time commitment of serving the health needs of the African American community.
His community involvement included supporting the American Cancer Society and the Long Beach Jewish Family and Children’s Service.