Southeast Michigan Seniors Face ‘Regional Crisis’ As Providers, Insurers Exit Medicare+Choice Market
Medicare+Choice beneficiaries in southeast Michigan could "soon experience disruption" of their coverage as insurers and providers exit the program, the Detroit News reports. Citing "insufficient federal funding," three Detroit HMOs -- Health Alliance Plan, M-Care Senior Plan and Senior Plan Prestige -- announced Aug. 1 that they will "immediately stop" taking new members. Other plans intend to exit the program altogether next year, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's Medicare Blue HMO. For beneficiaries whose plans are exiting, there are no other open plans in southeast Michigan that say they are taking beneficiaries as of mid-August. With so many health plans and hospitals leaving the program, the "situation has become a regional crisis." The News reports that "most" of the HMOs opted to drop the program after the government projected a 2% Medicare rate increase for next year, which is expected to fall short of covering double digit medical inflation. However, many of the plans opting to cut services made profits last year and may be "trimming coverage" to prevent losses from an "influx of new seniors seeking refuge from dissolved plans," the News reports. Although hospitals only "drop out" of Medicare+Choice when their doctors stop accepting the coverage, many providers say they "had no choice" but to exit the program. Dr. Leon Morris, an internist at Beaumont Hospitals, said the plans are "terrible," adding, "We don't cover our costs." In Oakland County, for example, three "major hospital systems" plan to leave the program, which will shrink the list of available providers for about 3,000 seniors (Webster, Detroit News, 8/2). For further information on state health policy in Michigan, visit State Health Facts Online.
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