The first for-profit insurance company approved to offer government-subsidized coverage under Massachusetts' health reform has dangerously restricted access to primary care, according to a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers say the findings raise troubling concerns about the Obama administration's new health law, which is modeled after the Massachusetts plan.
"The problems faced by CeltiCare's patients may soon become much more widespread," said Ruth Hertzman-Miller, MD, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and letter co-author. "Our legislative leaders want to require every insurer in Massachusetts to offer a plan with a restricted list of doctors and a lower price tag. But that kind of restricted coverage may be little more than a worthless piece of paper."
Three Harvard-affiliated physicians reported that out of a list of 326 doctors identified as members of the provider network of CeltiCare – a for-profit insurer contracted by Massachusetts to take over coverage of about 30,000 legal immigrants (and, more recently, low-income citizens) – only 217 were non-duplicate adult primary care providers.
Of the 217 doctors, 25 percent could not be reached by telephone.
Of those primary care doctors who were reachable by telephone, only 37 percent, or 60 providers, said they were accepting new CeltiCare patients. In those cases, the average wait time for an appointment was 33 days, even though the patient was described as having a chronic illness like diabetes or hypertension.
The letter points out that even when patients have insurance, profit-driven plans may discourage them from getting the care they need by "rationing by inconvenience."
The data appears in a letter, "Immigrants' experience with publicly funded private health insurance," in the Aug. 5 print edition of the NEJM.
"The state suddenly shifted thousands of sick patients to a cut-rate plan. But instead of getting a bargain, the patients were left stranded – insured, but unable to find a doctor who could care for them," said Malgorzata Dawiskiba, MD, a letter co-author.
The letter, written by two resident physicians at the Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance and a Harvard Medical School faculty adviser, is based on the work of a group of interns, residents and medical students from several Boston-area hospitals and medical schools.
The doctors-in-training carried out research after they became worried when some of their sickest patients were forced from their existing insurance plan into the CeltiCare plan. The patients were told that they could no longer be treated at many of their previous health clinics, forcing them to find new doctors.
The researchers identified doctors available to the CeltiCare patients using the plan's "Find a Provider" Web site.
"Trying to get an appointment was even more daunting than these numbers suggest," said Cassie Frank, MD, a co-author of the article. "Many clinics forced me to call several times to get an appointment. One said they only open up appointments on Monday morning, and that to have a chance of getting any appointment slot I'd have to show up an hour before the clinic opened to be first in line."