Commonwealth Care Bridge Limits Network

Many immigrants will no longer be able to get care from three major Boston-area health care networks as of October 1st, when the state's new health plan ( Commonwealth Care Bridge) for 31,000 legal immigrants begins.

Executives of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, and Cambridge Health Alliance said last night that they were denied contracts by the insurance company selected by the state to serve the immigrants. That denial, the hospital officials said, will mean that many of their roughly 10,000 patients will face significant disruptions as they are forced to find new physicians in the network of state-subsidized CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts, and their records are transferred to new providers.

``Patients that expect to have a relationship with a certain doctor or hospital are all of a sudden told they can't have it because an insurance company is intentionally limiting the network'' for no good reason, said Paul Levy, chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess.

CeltiCare said last night that it is still working to build a ``very robust'' network of health care providers across the state, and that it will make decisions about patients' care on a case-by-case basis.

``If a person is scheduled for an operation with a doctor who is someone outside our network, we will work with that doctor,'' said CeltiCare spokesman Brian Delaney. ``We will not disrupt the important care for people with special cases.''

The immigrants' coverage under the Commonwealth Care plan, the centerpiece of the state's landmark 2006 health care overhaul, expired Aug. 31, after the Legislature initially eliminated $130 million for their care to help balance the state's budget.

Ultimately, legislators restored $40 million, and CeltiCare stepped in to offer a reduced-rate package. Delaney said that CeltiCare's decision to shut out several of Boston's major hospitals - and most of their affiliated community health centers - was a financial decision to control costs.

CeltiCare's network in Boston and beyond is largely composed of physicians and hospitals in the Caritas Christi Health Care and Partners HealthCare networks.

A spokesman for the Patrick administration declined to comment on the hospitals' concerns about their patients under the new system, and instead issued a statement that noted that state officials did manage to successfully piece together a plan for the immigrants that prevented them from losing all health coverage.

-From “New health plan for immigrants limits network: Three Boston groups denied contracts say patients will suffer”, by Kay Lazar, The Boston Globe, September 30, 2009 , http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/09/30/new_health_plan_for_immigrants_limits_network/ retrieved 10/1/09.

 

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