Third health insurance cooperative to shut down
BUSINESS RECORD STAFF Aug 28, 2015 | 8:23 pm
1 min read time
260 wordsAll Latest News, Health and Wellness, InsuranceNevada’s nonprofit, member-owned health insurer will go out of business at the end of the year, sharing the same fate as the failed Iowa-based CoOportunity Health, which went out of business early this year, LifeHealthPro reported.
Nevada Health Cooperative is closing because claim costs have been higher than expected for the second year in a row and opportunities to attract new investment are limited, Pam Egan, the chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“It has become clear that the amount of growth required to provide quality care at reasonable rates will be unlikely in the next plan year,” Egan said.
Nevada Health Co-Op is one of 23 health insurers created with startup loans from the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) program, and it’s the third co-op to close or announce plans to close.
In March, Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart filed a liquidation notice for CoOportunity Health in a process that is still unwinding the insurer’s assets and liabilities. In addition to CoOportunity, which provided coverage in Iowa and Nebraska, Louisiana Health Cooperative Inc. is on track to shut down Dec. 31 through a voluntary process similar to the Nevada Health Co-Op shutdown process.
Nevada Health Co-Op did better at attracting enrollees than many other co-ops. It ended up with about 16,500 enrollees at the end of 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. The company reached 49 percent of its original 2014 enrollment projection despite selling coverage through a state-based exchange that suffered from crippling enrollment system problems in 2014.
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