Wisconsin Physicians Service Health Insurance Corp. has lost its bid for a contract to handle Medicare Part A and Part B claims for Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois.

"It certainly will impact WPS," said executive vice president Bill Bathke.

But he said he won't have specifics until after a debriefing with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services later this month.

WPS, Monona, has been processing Part B claims from doctors and laboratories and some Part A claims from hospitals and nursing homes from the three states.

The new contract, awarded to a North Dakota company, was projected to be worth about $1.4 billion over five years.

In 2007, WPS won a contract to handle Medicare claims from Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa; that will run through 2014, Bathke said.

WPS has 4,400 employees; Bathke would not say how many locations there are or how many employees work in the Madison area offices.