Clear One Health Plans of Bend began sending letters and proxy statements to shareholders Tuesday, seeking their approval to merge the company with PacificSource Health Plans of Eugene.

Shareholder approval will be the last major step in the merger, now that state insurance officials have signed off on the plan.

Regulators with the Insurance Division of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services approved the merger March 17, said spokeswoman Cheryl Martinis.

Clear One received approval earlier from federal Medicaid and Medicare officials, the company said in a news release, and approval from the state Division of Medical Assistance Programs, which oversees the Oregon Health Plan, is expected by the end of the week, said spokeswoman Nelsa Brodie. Clear One also handles patients under the Oregon Health Plan.

Under the merger, which the health insurance companies announced in late December, Clear One would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of PacificSource, a private company founded in 1933 that now provides insurance services statewide and has additional offices in Bend, Medford and Portland, and Boise, Idaho.

PacificSource will pay $26 per share of Clear One stock to acquire the company. Clear One closed on Tuesday above $25 per share in over-the-counter trading, although in the six months before the merger was announced, the stock’s closing price ranged from around $7.50 a share in July to $12 a share in September.

Shareholders still must approve the merger, and results of their voting will be announced April 23 at a shareholders meeting at Clear One’s office on Bend’s east side, said Gunnar Hansen, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

If the merger is approved, Clear One’s 48,000 members should not notice any changes in their health insurance.

“This transaction will not affect their policies whatsoever,” he said Tuesday.

Whether Clear One will change its name at some point is unclear and one of the issues the companies must work out, Hansen said. Clear One does not want to confuse policyholders, although it will become a subsidiary of PacificSource.

Clear One has 110 employees, most of whom work in its offices on Northeast Conners Avenue.

While the company has no plans to eliminate employees, Hansen said, the merging of two insurance companies may result in duplicate jobs. So some workers may be affected.

“Right now, it’s going to be a small percentage of our employee base,” he said.

Clear One also has no plans to leave the 78,000-square-foot headquarters building located east of Northeast 27th Street that opened in 2008.

The company does not occupy the whole building, which has space available on 1.5 floors for lease.

PacificSource, Hansen said, may even move some of its employees into the building at some point.