MD-based Coventry Health Care to buy Preferred Health Systems

Bethesda, MD-based Coventry Health Care announced that it has agreed to acquire health plan Preferred Health Systems of Wichita, a move that would boost the managed-care provider's presence in the Midwest. Under the deal, Coventry would add Preferred Health's roughly 100,000 members to its rolls, giving it more than 1 million members in six Midwestern states, Coventry chief executive Allen F. Wise said in a statement.