Ongoing problems with the Affordable Care Act risk-adjustment program have pushed two of the last remaining Consumer Oriented and Operated Program carriers into receivership.
The Maryland Insurance Administration has put Evergreen Health Inc. into receivership and, apparently, given up on the idea that investors might buy its assets. That CO-OP carrier has about 25,000 enrollees.
The Massachusetts Division of Insurance has put Minuteman Health, a CO-OP that does business in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, into receivership, but left open the possibility that Tom Policelli, the company's chief executive officer, might find a way to re-organize the company outside the restrictions of the CO-OP system.
Minuteman Health has about 37,000 enrollees.
Regulators have not published any details about the Evergreen Health or Minuteman Health receiverships on the web.
Regulators say both plans will continue to pay medical claims.
CO-OPs
The drafters of the Affordable Care Act created the CO-OP program in an effort to increase the level of competition in the private health insurance market, by providing startup loans for nonprofit, member-owned carriers.
The moderate Senate Democrats who championed the program left the Senate soon after the ACA came to life.