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Warnings were in the news last month about the collapse of larger health insurance companies. Seems it is true.
Catskills Patients and Doctors left high and dry by semi-retired President Obama.
By Timothy Knight
11/30/15 - 3:45 pm
Patients and doctors across the Catskills have been scrambling to deal with the abrupt closure of Health Republic, a troubled health insurance company that is closing for business today, Monday, Nov. 30.
The shuttered company is no longer paying its claims, leaving doctors unsure whether they will ever be paid for seeing Health Republic patients. Some doctors have turned patients away, or are bargaining directly with patients over their medical fees.
In September, New York State regulators ordered Health Republic, the largest of many health insurance cooperatives to be established across the country as part of the Affordable Care Act, to close at the end of 2015.
Then, in late October, as the company’s dire financial state was revealed, state regulators bumped up the company’s closure date to today, Nov. 30—giving patients and doctors only a month to react.
Health Republic’s collapse has forced a panicked scramble among patients and doctors in upstate New York. Local doctors have worried that Health Republic will default on bills, and at least one practice, the Llobet Medical Group, has turned away patients who have Health Republic insurance.
“This was one of the biggest disasters ever,” said David Cordner, an administrator at Llobet Medical Group, a primary care practice with offices in Margaretville and Kingston. “I don’t understand why New York didn’t see this a lot sooner. Nobody got paid. Where was the money going?”
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http://www.watershedpost.com/2015/catskills-patients-and-doctors-left-lurch-health-republic-shutdown
Catskills Patients and Doctors left high and dry by semi-retired President Obama.
By Timothy Knight
11/30/15 - 3:45 pm
Patients and doctors across the Catskills have been scrambling to deal with the abrupt closure of Health Republic, a troubled health insurance company that is closing for business today, Monday, Nov. 30.
The shuttered company is no longer paying its claims, leaving doctors unsure whether they will ever be paid for seeing Health Republic patients. Some doctors have turned patients away, or are bargaining directly with patients over their medical fees.
In September, New York State regulators ordered Health Republic, the largest of many health insurance cooperatives to be established across the country as part of the Affordable Care Act, to close at the end of 2015.
Then, in late October, as the company’s dire financial state was revealed, state regulators bumped up the company’s closure date to today, Nov. 30—giving patients and doctors only a month to react.
Health Republic’s collapse has forced a panicked scramble among patients and doctors in upstate New York. Local doctors have worried that Health Republic will default on bills, and at least one practice, the Llobet Medical Group, has turned away patients who have Health Republic insurance.
“This was one of the biggest disasters ever,” said David Cordner, an administrator at Llobet Medical Group, a primary care practice with offices in Margaretville and Kingston. “I don’t understand why New York didn’t see this a lot sooner. Nobody got paid. Where was the money going?”
[...]
http://www.watershedpost.com/2015/catskills-patients-and-doctors-left-lurch-health-republic-shutdown