One of the dozen health insurance carriers for Covered California has been suspended for lack of a state license.
Alameda Alliance for Health has been removed from the Affordable Care Act marketplace in California “until further notice.”
The Bay area non-profit, which provides Medi-Cal managed care plans, failed to win approval with its application for a “material modification” of its license that would allow commercial insurance sales. The reason was lack of sufficient net equity, or financial resources, held by the company.
Covered California chief Peter Lee called Alameda Alliance “a solid provider network” and “a valuable asset to the community.” Alliance seeks to serve “lower-income people of Alameda County.”
“We look forward to the company getting its commercial license, so we can welcome its plans back to the exchange,” Lee said in announcing the suspension Nov. 1.
Covered California said it “doesn’t expect any impact on coverage in the Alameda County region, as residents can choose from a mix of plans from Anthem, Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente, with service at a total of nine hospitals in the region.” Those three providers are the largest in the state. (View list of Covered California insurance carriers.)
Alameda County residents who signed up for the company’s health insurance via Covered California have been told they have to pick another provider, the insurance exchange said. Covered California has not released signup figures and plans to do so later this month.
While Alamenda Alliance was a minor player in the Obamacare marketplace for individual insurance in California, the suspension is another setback for healthcare reform. Covered California, by and large, has avoided much of the controversy surrounding the federal rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces.
Alamenda Alliance told the Los Angeles Times it expected to put its financial house in order in time to get its commercial license in December.
The Alliance web site said: “We anticipate that AllianceSELECT will be offered before the end of 2014 open enrollment.”
Alliance has about 163,000 members in the Medi-Cal system. The company will see a surge in signups in January, under the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Alliance says its network includes more than 1,700 doctors working in 15 hospitals as well as community centers.
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