Thousands in Danger of Losing Health Insurance
by October 18, 2010 12:00 am 81 views
The sale, completed Oct. 1, of Mercy Health Plans of St. Louis to Coventry Health Care Inc. of Bethesda, Md., means that more than 6,000 Arkansans are going to lose their individual heath coverage come March 16.
State Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford confirmed to Whispers that the Arkansas Insurance Department is working with Mercy and with the Arkansas Comprehensive Health Insurance Pool to make sure any MercyOne policyholders who can’t get replacement insurance in the open market will be covered by the state high-risk pool.
While no agreement was in place, Bradford indicated that he was working on getting Mercy to pay a subsidy for every uninsurable person thrown into the CHIP – at least until 2014, when the state health insurance exchange mandated by the federal health care reform bill will be operational.
A meeting with CHIP was scheduled for Oct. 11, he said.
A Sept. 15 letter from Mercy to insurance agents in Arkansas indicated that Coventry would be offering its own individual major medical product in the state, but it had not yet been approved by the AID.