Physicians Nationwide Face Terminations as Insurance Plans Move to Narrow Networks

In the past year, thousands of health care providers across the country have been excluded without cause from their insurance plan’s provider networks. The proliferation of narrow networks – defined as health insurance plans that limit the doctors and hospitals available to their subscribers – has caused a backlash amongst providers, who claim the insurers’ terminations will squeeze beneficiaries on access to care, and disrupt longstanding patient-physician relationship, emergency department care, and referral networks.

Although the Affordable Care Act did not create narrow networks, the reform law accelerated the trend by limiting insurer’s ability to continually lower benefits and exclude unhealthy individuals. Without other ways to compete, controlling providers and limiting choice is the insurers’ best way to lower premiums and thus compete on the exchanges. Insurers claim that narrow networks control costs and allow for higher quality, better coordinated care.

In most cases, however, patients choose insurance plans based on the plan’s access to a specific provider network. Patients subscribe and re-subscribe to one-year commitments with the primary intent to access their long-term primary care physicians or other regularly seen providers. Patients often build relationships with these providers over several years, even decades. Now, without notice or the ability to switch their plan, the patients’ physician is suddenly out-of-network and cost-prohibitive.

For physicians, a termination from a single insurance provider can be career threatening. Physicians receiving terminations and non-renewals lose critical access to patient groups and are excluded from the referral networks they developed throughout their career.

Providers across the country are reporting terminations, often without cause, from Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, and private insurance plans. Medicaid Managed Care and Medicare Advantage plans often cover the most vulnerable patient populations. These patients will suffer from losing their primary care physicians and often lack the ability to effectively manage their own healthcare. In some states, Attorney Generals and provider groups are challenging the insurance providers in Court, and asking state agencies to take action.

Our firm currently represents physicians challenging terminations via their insurance plans’ appeal processes. However, as the appeal processes are often limited to determining if the insurance provider followed the termination or nonrenewal procedures in their provider agreements, we have reached out to state regulators and healthcare agencies to seek assistance in protecting provider and patient rights. The insurance plans’ ability to move to a narrow network is not the issue. Instead, the real issue is that in the narrowing of networks, patients must have right to keep their primary care provider in the plan or otherwise be allowed to disenroll and transfer plans to continue to see their primary care physician. Medicare and Medicaid authorities, including the states’ contracts with the plans, recognize patients’ right to provider choice. Those rights are enhanced with regard to primary care physicians. Provider terminations sever long standing physician-patient relationship and may lead to lower quality, less personalized care. Further, with the increase in enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, the large volume of terminations will significantly reduce access to care, a primary objective of government-provided health care.

We are challenging whether the insurance providers, specifically those operating Medicaid Managed Care and Medicare Advantage plans, are breaching the requirements of the Social Security Act and other Medicare and Medicaid laws. Further, we believe providers and patients have extensive rights emanating out of contracts between states and the insurance plan. Our position is that all laws, regulations, codes, and policies regarding the insurance providers’ operation of Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans serve to define the relationship between the state, the plan, the provider, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Insurance companies terminating plans also may have breached common law contract principles by the manner in which they induce patients via providers that the plan has already determined to terminate.

Please let our firm know if you have received a network termination or nonrenewal, and seek assistance in challenging the action via an appeal to the insurance plan or other action. Wachler & Associates has over 25 years of experience representing healthcare providers across the country. Our firm has successfully challenged insurance company actions countless times, often obtaining extremely beneficial resolutions for our clients. Further, our attorneys’ industry relationships allow us to connect with state representatives and other healthcare groups to together and efficiently challenge these improper methods of termination.

If you would like to speak to one of our experienced health care attorneys, please contact us via our website or call our offices at 248-544-0888. Our attorneys are currently challenging network terminations and will be happy to assist in your appeal.