URBANA — Health Alliance Medical Plans could be available to state employees and retirees as a temporary health insurance option as early as today, the company said.

"We are all working very quickly," Health Alliance spokeswoman Jane Hayes said Tuesday after a legislative panel agreed to allow the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to negotiate new 90-day contracts with the health insurers currently serving state group plan members.

Both Health Alliance and HealthLink said they are eager to work quickly with the state on new temporary contracts that will avert a crisis for state employees and retirees who have been facing a health plan enrollment deadline of Friday without any choices.

"We have 76,000 members on the outs," said David Smith, government relations director for HealthLink.

Smith said the Tuesday decision by the Legislature's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability to allow immediate negotiations to get under way on 90-day health insurance contracts will be very helpful for the company and state group plan members.

"This really was, at the end of the day, to protect the state employees from the potential disaster, from the uncertainty of the state plans," he said.

Hayes said Health Alliance sees COGFA's action as a good step to alleviate some of the confusion and uncertainty for now.

"We think this is a good move, to take some extra time here," she said.

Health Alliance — which was rejected as an insurance plan administrator for the upcoming benefits period and has a lawsuit pending against the state — currently covers nearly 100,000 state members in an HMO set to end June 30 and its new plan.

Meanwhile, since enrollment in the contentious new health plans began, HealthLink, one of the successful new bidders, had enrolled just a fraction of its current number of state members.

Smith said 9,000 people had enrolled in HealthLink's Open Access Plan for the upcoming benefits year from the start of enrollment until a June 10 court order directed the state to halt its contracts with HealthLink and PersonalCare until Health Alliance and Humana lawsuits are heard.

"We had massive pockets of people who were being told to wait (to enroll) at the time, and rightfully so," he said.

Uncertainty remains for the new benefits year, despite the 90-day insurance contracts on the way.

A grievance filed by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31 about the new state insurance contracts still hasn't been heard, and litigation has just started working its way through the courts. The June 10 court order stopping contracts with HealthLink and PersonalCare is currently before the Fourth Appellate Court.

Meanwhile, Smith said, HealthLink remains in negotiation with physician and hospital provider groups for its Open Access Plan, and that includes Carle Physician Group.

Those Open Access Plans could once again become state employees' choices later this year, depending on how the appellate court rules.

The company intends to make Carle Physician Group a "tier one" provider if negotiations work out with Carle, Smith said. The tier one part of Open Access Plans offers HMO-like benefits for state members.