Dive Brief:
- Land of Lincoln Health, the only co-op in Illinois, announced its operating losses skyrocketed to $90.8 million last year, Crain's Chicago Busines reports.
- The startup was founded under the ACA to create competition on the health exchanges and lower prices. There are only 12 of the 23 co-ops remaining nationwide.
- The company's net loss is nearly five times greater than the amount reported in 2014, when it was $17.7 million. A financial statement filed with the national insurance regulators said the company lost $40 million in the last three months of 2015.
Dive Insight:
Although the company generated $147.4 million in total revenue last year, problems started to snowball in October when it announced it was capping enrollment to cut costs.
After it announced it was dropping the University of Chicago Medicine from its network starting March 1, two patients from that facility who are Land of Lincoln enrollees, sued the insurer, alleging fraud.
The Illinois Department of Insurance is watching the co-op closely and may have to step in if the company slides further in financial trouble.
If the co-op is forced to stop selling policies, it could pay outstanding claims under the department's supervision or the department could petition the courts to become Land of Lincoln's receiver. In the later case, a nonprofit company that assesses fees to member insurance companies, the Illinois Life &Health Insurance Guaranty Association, would pay the co-op's outstanding claims if Land of Lincoln had no funds.
A Senate hearing in January focused on how CMS is monitoring the remaining co-ops and what is needed to regain the $1.2 billion in federal dollars from failed co-op plans, Healthcare Dive previously reported.