By CHAD ABSHIRE
Staff Writer
Sen. Ray S. Jones II (D-Pikeville) recently sent a letter to Gov. Steve Beshear, asking him to step in and “ensure the vulnerable citizens of Kentucky on Medicaid receive adequate healthcare,” a press release stated.
Coventry Cares of Kentucky recently notified Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Baptist Healthcare System and King’s Daughters Medical Center that it was going to renegotiate contracts.
Jones said that if no agreement was reached, more than 40,000 people who currently receive Medicaid services through Coventry would either have to move to another health plan or switch health care providers.
He also said that Coventry was now sending letters to doctors in eastern Kentucky to notify them that Coventry was terminating their provider contracts.
“This is unacceptable,” Jones said. “I (have) called on Gov. Beshear to step in and help address this crisis.”
In the letter to the governor, Jones stated that he was ready to assist in any manner.
“We need to make sure that patients who receive Medicaid services through Coventry have access to adequate health care,” Jones said.
Unfortunately, right now insurers do cherry pick in a way that I think should be illegal. Insurance should not be about risk management, where companies use computer models to slice and dice their customer base into smaller and smaller segments to exclude more and more people. That's not a legit way that health insurance should be sold, only solution for precondition is being "Penny Health"