Effective Jan. 1, Regence BlueShield will no longer provide health insurance for nearly 3,400 low-income Basic Health Plan patients in Snohomish County.
Most of these patients will have to choose new clinics by Nov. 14.
Many current Regence patients likely will switch their medical care to nonprofit clinics, either the Community Health Center of Snohomish County, with offices in Everett and Lynnwood, or SeaMar in Marysville.
"We’ll do whatever we can to make sure people looking for a medical home can find one," said Ken Green, executive director of the Community Health Center of Snohomish County.
However, Medalia Medical Group is trying to find a way to contract to continue to care for its own nearly 1,000 Basic Health Plan patients, said Caroline Bodeen, director of operations.
"For us, I don’t think it will be an issue," she said. "It’s just confusing for the patients."
Basic Heath Plan patients who get their care at Group Health Cooperative will not be affected.
"We’re interested in this program," spokeswoman Laura Query said. "We have no plans to withdraw from Snohomish County in 2004."
Group Health will be able to accept some new Basic Health Plan patients now insured through Regence, but Query said she didn’t know how many.
Under the Basic Health Plan, the working poor have most of their health insurance paid for by the state, with patients paying the remainder.
Affected patients in Snohomish County include nearly 1,500 children covered under Basic Health Plus, said Jodi Coffey, a Regence spokeswoman.
There’s one exception to the Regence decision to drop Basic Health Plan patients in Snohomish County next year. A group of about 100 Stanwood-area patients will continue to be covered because they are included under its Skagit County operations.
Regence now provides health care to Basic Health Plan patients in Snohomish County through a network of 400 physicians, she said. Regence and the physicians weren’t able to agree on how much they would be paid to care for Basic Health Plan patients next year, she said.
"Basically, we weren’t able to pull together an adequate network of doctors" to serve Basic Health Plan patients, she said.
"We get so much money to administer the program," Coffey said. "The amount of funding the state is able to provide isn’t adequate to cover the needs of doctors."
No figures were immediately available on the amount of money Regence estimates it would lose if it continued health insurance for Basic Health Plan patients in Snohomish County next year.
"It’s always a difficult decision to have to leave a county," Coffey said. "To serve our members, we need an adequate number of doctors."
Regence decides on a county-by-county basis where it will provide coverage for Basic Health Plan patients.
"We can only be in the counties where we find doctors able to accept the reimbursement rate we can provide," she added.
The Regence decision follows a similar move made by The Everett Clinic. On Jan. 1, the group of countywide medical clinics stopped providing health care to about 1,100 Basic Health Plan patients, estimating it would lose $350,000 this year caring for them.
Officials of The Everett Clinic said their decision was made after Regence cut payments for patient care by 15 percent to 50 percent for office visits, specialty care and procedures.
Reporter Sharon Salyer:
425-339-3486 or
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