The life and health insurance guaranty associations in Iowa and Nebraska have started paying claims for CoOportunity Health enrollees.
An Iowa state court issued a final liquidation order for CoOportunity Health — one of the nonprofit, member-owned plans created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) — earlier this month.
Last summer, before news of financial problems surfaced, CoOportunity had about 100,000 enrollees. When the court made the liquidation official, the Iowa-based insurer had only 2,619 enrollees in Iowa and 11,135 in Nebraska.
The Iowa Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association and the Nebraska Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association are responsible for handling about $80 million in outstanding eligible health claims, according to Nick Gerhart, the Iowa insurance commissioner.
The CoOportunity liquidation will give agents, brokers and others a chance to see how guaranty funds and regulators handle health insurer liquidations.
Some enrollees may have stayed with the CoOportunity coverage to avoid having to pay higher premiums, or to avoid having to meet the deductible at a new plan.