State pledges to help patients losing ObamaCare coverage

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2015/11/09/state-pledges-to-help-patients-losing-obamacare-coverage/

State pledges to help patients losing ObamaCare coverage
By Joe Tacopino
November 9, 2015 | 6:00am

State officials are pledging to help patients who are about to lose their ObamaCare insurance — including some cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — because the provider they chose is going bankrupt.

The New York State Department of Financial Services said Sunday it would extend the enrollment deadline for patients using Health Republic Insurance of New York and create an auto-enrollment option to help ensure that patients don’t lose coverage.

Some 250 patients receiving treatment at Sloan Kettering are trying to get new insurance because they chose Health Republic. The insurer is the only in New York that provides coverage at the world-renowned hospital through ObamaCare.

“We will continue to take aggressive action to protect consumers in the wake of Health Republic’s failure,” Acting Superintendent of Financial Services Anthony J. Albanese said in a statement.

“The extended deadline and auto-enrollment option are important steps in helping ensure the company’s customers do not go without insurance,” he added.

The state is also looking into Health Republic’s finances for any possible malfeasance.

 

[The Bobster]

http://nypost.com/2015/12/08/emblem-health-boots-750-doctors-thanks-to-obamacare/

Emblem Health boots 750 doctors thanks to ObamaCare
By Carl Campanile
December 8, 2015 | 2:38am

Emblem Health is booting 750 doctors from its downstate network of providers effective Jan. 1 as part of ObamaCare.

Fearing a precedent, the state Medical Society has called on the Cuomo administration to intervene.

“They’re taking away the rights and choices from patients. This is bad for patients, bad for doctors, bad for health care,” said New York County Medical Society President Michael Goldstein.

Emblem Health CEO Karen Ignagni defended the move in a letter to the state Department of Financial Services, saying the reduction covers only 2 percent of the doctors in its network.

She said the insurer is implementing a payment overhaul promoted by ObamaCare and New York officials that will “improve the outcomes of our members and contribute to the creation of a better health-care system in New York.”

In an effort to rein in costs, the new payment system provides doctors with a fixed fee per patient rather than a fee for every visit and medical test.

The change requires doctors to move away from a billing system that has “rewarded volume, not value, for patients,” Ignagni said.