Dive Brief:
- Late Tuesday, Land of Lincoln's spokesperson Dennis O'Sullivan confirmed the co-op created under the ACA would liquidate and shut its doors, Crain's Chicago Business reported.
- The acting director of the Illinois Department of Insurance Anne Melissa Dowling has requested the state attorney general to get the liquidation process started by petitioning the Circuit Court of Cook County.
- Dowling told Crain's the decision was made based on the co-op's fiscal reality in the wake of CMS' rejection of a plan that would have kept the state's co-op afloat in the face of its $32 million bill from the agency for the ACA's risk-adjustment program.
Dive Insight:
Seven. That's the number of the original 23 health co-ops created under the ACA that are still standing. While a cohort of the original agencies began to fold in the fall last year (Land of Lincoln lost nearly $90 million in 2015) largely due to the ACA's risk-corridor program.
However, shortly after CMS released its risk-adjustment figures on June 30, three co-ops have fallen because of the windfall of money they suddenly owed the federal government. Last week, co-ops in Oregon and Connecticut succumbed to their newly-found harsh fiscal reality and decided to call it a day.
Trying to hold on, Land of Lincoln late last month launched a lawsuit against the federal government over the more than $70 million it said it is owed under the Affordable Care Act's risk corridors provision.
Land of Lincoln had about 50,000 policyholders, Crain's reported.