Oxford HealthCare history

A native of Minnesota, Wiggins had earned his bachelor's degree at Macalester College in St Paul before tagging on a Harvard MBA. He started his career in 1976 with Health Central, Inc., a company that owned and operated several midwestern hospitals.

In 1977, two VA doctors, Doctor Rosalyn Yalow (Bronx VAMC) and Doctor Andrew Schally (New Orleans VAMC) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in developing radioimmunoassay of peptide hormones.

Oxford Health Plans is primarily the creation of Stephen F. Wiggins, who founded the company in 1984.

By 1987, its first full year of operation, Oxford generated premiums of about $5.6 million.

The company raised $11.2 million through a private stock placement in 1988 and used the money to beef up its sales force, to increase advertising and promotions, and to scout for some acquisitions of its own to bolster its product offerings.

The change took full effect on March 15, 1989, when the Veterans Administration was renamed as the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In 1990, in fact, Oxford was the second most profitable HMO in New York.

VA’s Department of Medicine and Surgery was re-designated as the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration, as part of the elevation, and on May 7, 1991, was renamed as the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

By early 1994 Oxford was boasting a roster of about 250,000 members.

By late 1995, Oxford was serving a base of about one million customers and annualized sales had surpassed $1 billion.

In 2000, OCH re-opened it as a renovated 45-bed acute care hospital facility, with only 35 full-time employees.

In 2005, the 100-bed hospital located in Gravette closed.

In early 2007, our organization was approached by community leaders from a remote town in Northwest Arkansas about the possibility of reopening a closed hospital that was once the major employer and medical safety net for many in rural Benton County.

In 2008, OCH re-opened it as a renovated 25-bed critical access hospital with 30 employees.

In late 2016, the OCH Health System announced expansion to 5 rural health clinics including one in Oklahoma.