Just when you think you've seen the limits of market power, creativity emerges. Julie Donnelly at the Boston Business Journal reports:
Partners HealthCare aims to drive new members to its newly acquired health insurer, Neighborhood Health Plan, by cutting off access to some doctors within new health plans offered under ObamaCare.
Neighborhood Health Plan is one of 10 insurers that has been certified to offer subsidized and un-subsidized ObamaCare plans through the state’s Health Connector.
But what Neighborhood Health Plan has is exclusive access to primary-care doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Now that Partners, the parent organization of the Brigham and Mass General, owns a piece of the insurance pie, they have decided to offer access to their primary care doctors only to those members who choose Neighborhood Health Plan.
This is likely to drive new business to Neighborhood Health Plan from Boston-area patients who want to keep or begin a relationship with a primary-care doctor at one of the two most prestigious hospitals in the state.
This is a departure from Partners’ strategy in the past. Before its purchase of Neighborhood Health Plan, Partners’ offered access to its doctors to all of the health plans within the state-subsidized health plans that were launched under Massachusetts' own statewide health reform.
Partners HealthCare aims to drive new members to its newly acquired health insurer, Neighborhood Health Plan, by cutting off access to some doctors within new health plans offered under ObamaCare.
Neighborhood Health Plan is one of 10 insurers that has been certified to offer subsidized and un-subsidized ObamaCare plans through the state’s Health Connector.
But what Neighborhood Health Plan has is exclusive access to primary-care doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Now that Partners, the parent organization of the Brigham and Mass General, owns a piece of the insurance pie, they have decided to offer access to their primary care doctors only to those members who choose Neighborhood Health Plan.
This is likely to drive new business to Neighborhood Health Plan from Boston-area patients who want to keep or begin a relationship with a primary-care doctor at one of the two most prestigious hospitals in the state.
This is a departure from Partners’ strategy in the past. Before its purchase of Neighborhood Health Plan, Partners’ offered access to its doctors to all of the health plans within the state-subsidized health plans that were launched under Massachusetts' own statewide health reform.
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