PersonalCare ends contract with Christie effective Jan. 1
CHAMPAIGN — All Christie Clinic patients insured by PersonalCare will need to find a new insurer if they want to keep their current doctors after the end of this year.
The clinic announced Tuesday afternoon that PersonalCare has terminated its contractual relationship with Christie Clinic effective Jan. 1, 2012.
This applies to PersonalCare members on state group health plans and to those on private employer and other PersonalCare plans, according to clinic spokeswoman Karen Blatzer.
State employees and retirees can have uninterrupted access to Christie Clinic by switching to a Health Alliance Medical Plans HMO or a HealthLink OAP plan in the upcoming open enrollment next month, Christie Clinic officials said.
They declined to give reasons for the contract termination, and denied a request by The News-Gazette for an interview to discuss the situation further.
MoreLet's see - if you chose PersonalCare OAP to keep your Christie doctors as Tier 1 providers (essentially same as the old HMO rates), PersonalCare has decided it can't make enough money that way so it is hoping you will not (or maybe you cannot) change insurance providers so that they can make more money when you continue going to Christie as a Tier 2 provider. And waited until now to make it public - certainly this did not develop overnight. Wow. Just - wow.
Since its inception, if you wanted maximum insurance benefits and you wanted to use Christie Clinic physicians and the Provena Covenant Medical Center, your insurance coverage option would be Personal Care. For Personal Care to now end its affiliation with Christie Clinic is absurd and damn inconvenient. I have been a Personal Care member since nearly the beginning. I really don't want to try to figure out my best health care option. Is there any chance this decision will be revoked?
Regardless of which policy they are pushing these patients too, Provena Covenant excepts all Health Alliance policies as Tier 1, (unless you work at Carle which is out of network coverage)and they accept the Health Link OAP policy as well. Furthermore offering an outstanding contract rate for both policies. State employess that use Covenant for their outpatient testings and their surgeries will still be able to do this even if they are forced to go to Carle doctors. Sorry sometimes its hard to seperate Health Alliance from Carle since they are one and the same...
Not all of what the News Gazette has reported is true. PersonalCare isn’t dumping Christie. The exclusive clause with Christie is going away, so that Carle doctors can be put on Tier 1 under the PersonalCare OAP. Per what PersonalCare and CMS say, this is not a devastating situation like we had in June.
Statement from PersonalCare (09/28/11)
In response to the recent news that PersonalCare will end its current contract with Christie Clinic, PersonalCare has provided the following statement to University faculty and staff:
Beginning with our founding more than twenty years ago, PersonalCare and Christie Clinic have a history of working together to serve the health care needs of Illinois residents and the Champaign community. Since our current contract with Christie Clinic dates back to 2003, PersonalCare started conversations with Christie Clinic earlier this year to update the terms and account for our additional membership associated with the State of Illinois Open Access Plan (OAP). Although our agreement is scheduled to terminate on January 1, 2012, it is PersonalCare's strong desire to continue our long-standing partnership with Christie Clinic and that Christie Clinic remain an in-network provider for years to come. We pledge to continue negotiations in this effort.
So why did Christie Clinic leak the story with this angle??? Is it because they don't want the public to realize that it is they themselves that want to refuse the negotiations??
It sounds to me like it is Christie Clinic that is doing the terminating. Are they want to get rid of Personal Care? Ten O'clock news just said that Christie is already planning on handing out letters to patients regarding the termination - as if it has already actually happened... Jumping the gun a bit if Personal Care still considers themselves active in negotiations.
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