I didn't see this mentioned, but Northwell Health is going to discontinue their Care Connect Insurance. I'm hoping I don't get screwed like I did with Health Republic. I am still fighting those unpaid claims.

Northwell to shut down Care Connect





CareConnect, the insurance subsidiary of New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health, said Thursday it would shut down, and thus withdraw from the state insurance market in 2018.

CareConnect said its 126,000 policyholders — including individuals, and small- and large-group accounts — would remain covered while they transfer to new health providers.

“Each policy will transfer depending on when the policy expires,” said Terry Lynam, a spokesman at Northwell Health.

About 56 percent of CareConnect policyholders are Long Island residents, the company said.


The East Hills-based insurer said it was closing, in part, because of the uncertainty of the Affordable Care Act’s future.

Northwell also pointed to the $112 million that CareConnect paid into the ACA’s risk-adjustment pool this year under the rules governing the insurance exchange. Northwell said the payment kept CareConnect from being profitable. The $112 million represented 44 percent of CareConnect’s 2016 revenue from its small group health plan.

“Everyone agrees that the formula is flawed, but no one is willing to change it,” Michael J. Dowling, president and chief executive of Northwell Health, said in an interview. “I could not take these losses without a light at the end of the tunnel.”

CareConnect would be facing another risk-adjustment payment of more than $100 million next year from its 2017 small-group revenue. CareConnect’s small group health plans are for businesses with 100 or fewer employees.

Northwell’s decision to end CareConnect underscores uncertainty and instability in the health insurance marketplace, experts said.

“It is critical that the federal government maintain a stable and predictable regulatory climate for the marketplaces and make necessary policy adjustments to ensure that consumers who rely on the marketplaces can maintain their coverage next year,” said Sara R. Collins, a vice president at the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation in Manhattan that supports independent research on health care issues.