Blue Cross May Force Illness-Prone New Yorkers into Managed Care Plans

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Blue Cross May Force Illness-Prone New Yorkers into Managed Care Plans

Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News (12/21/95)

Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, New York state's largest insurer, may cancel thousands of individual and family Tradition Plus health insurance policies that enable some of the sickest people to select their own physicians and hospitals. Consumer advocates claim that the insurer's forced move of these people into managed care plans could hurt the patients, many of whom have long-term relationships with their health-care professionals and facilities. Ruth Finkelstein, spokeswoman for New Yorkers for Accessible Health Care, noted that the 60,000 customers affected by the change have serious health problems and that many need specialists. Finkelstein also said that these patients have ten times the incidence of AIDS and three times the incidence of cancer and heart disease than the population as a whole. Empire CEO Michael Stocker said that coverage under one of the company's new managed care plans would be virtually the same, but the lifetime cap would shift for some patients from $1 million to $500,000.

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