 The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability
unanimously approved the plan at an emergency hearing in Chicago.
The vote gave the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family
Services the power to negotiate 90-day contracts with health
insurance vendors. These temporary contracts will start July 1.
Illinois State University employees and retirees are among those
caught in the middle of the state health insurance controversy. Many
of them have HMO coverage through Health Alliance and Humana, the
two providers that the state had planned to drop, effective July 1.
In a statement released Tuesday, Health Alliance said it had been
advised by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
that, beginning today, state employees will have Health Alliance
available as an option. While there are questions remaining, "we are
willing to do everything within our power to make sure this happens
quickly," the Urbana-based insurer said.
"We believe they have made a good decision to allow some extra
time to deal with the issues. And we are happy to have the
opportunity to continue serving state employees and their families."
Julie Hamos, director of the Department of Healthcare and Family
Services, said the goal of the temporary contracts is to provide
"continuity of care" as litigation involving the state's health
insurance plans works its way through the courts.
"(State employees) should feel relieved that there will be no
break in their health care coverage as of July 1," Hamos said after
the vote. "We're trying not to create more confusion for public
employees.''
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All but one of the current health insurance contracts for state
employees expire on June 30. The state had awarded new contracts for
two kinds of coverage -- "open access plans" and HMOs -- to begin
July 1. But on Friday, Sangamon County Judge Brian Otwell placed a
stay on the open access plan contracts as part of a lawsuit filed by
health insurance companies upset that they weren't chosen by the
state.
Those open access plans are the only health care option for
employees, retirees and their families across wide swaths of the
state, and Hamos said statewide coverage was impossible without the
plan option. If the temporary contracts aren't put in place,
thousands of state employees will be forced to choose new health
care providers that, in some cases, are far from their existing
ones.
Adding to the chaos, officials said, was that state employees
must make their health insurance selections for the coming year by
Friday, and the court decision made it unclear what options were
going to be available.
Legislators, state officials and health insurance companies said
frantic state employees contacted them in droves in recent days, and
one company received 25,000 phone calls in five days.
[Associated Press;
By KAREN HAWKINS]
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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