LONG BEACH, Calif. - Robert Gumbiner, a physician who founded the managed health care giant FHP because he thought the way doctors were paid was immoral, died Tuesday. He was 85.

Gumbiner died of prostate cancer at his Long Beach home, his personal secretary, Karen Simmons, said.

The St. Louis-born son of a doctor, Gumbiner disliked the traditional system where patients paid physicians or hospitals for specific care.

He told the Los Angeles Times in 1990 that he considered the practice "basically immoral" because it prevented the poor from obtaining care and encouraged doctors to perform unnecessary work.

He founded the nonprofit Family Health Program in 1961. For a flat monthly rate, the HMO provided members with any care they needed. FHP became the first HMO in the state to win a Medicaid contract.

The company later expanded into the profitmaking HMO and insurer called FHP International Corp. Gumbiner served as FHP's chief executive until 1990 and resigned as chairman in 1995.