Empire may not cover Stony Brook, 3 other hospitals

Dear Barry,
Please send Special Wizard Joey to Long Island with the magic wand to fix this .
Your subject in Hopey Changey Land,
abracadabra

That's right..shame on them, practitioners have already dropped Empire from their choice of insurance for their patients leaving them with no choice but to find a new doctor or group. Their excuse...we make more money from the patients without insurance. And I quote this from an office in Tech park affiliated with Stony Brook in Setauket.
Because the insurance company doesn't pay..

There goes the County Health Plan. No more Stony Brook. No more Carol Baldwin Breast Care Center.

My Dad has Empire Insurance(and he is a retired city fireman) pays $7.00 for a doctor visit....seriously, this is a low figure. I was very suprised to see that on his bills.

Here comes obama health care...hope you are all happy with voting for him....he will DESTROY AMERICA....look at the stimulus that was supposed to SAVE THE COUNTRY....IT FAILED AND THE ECONOMY IS DROPPING LOWER AND LOWER.... obama can't blame Bush anymore....it's his economy!!!!!!

Marge wrote:

There goes the County Health Plan. No more Stony Brook. No more Carol Baldwin Breast Care Center.

this will be fixed empire also runs new York state government health plan. The politicians won't let it happen

Tyt wrote:

<quoted text>
this will be fixed empire also runs new York state government health plan. The politicians won't let it happen

You got that exactly right. They always do right for themselves.

One of the weakest arguments against single payer health care is that people don't want "government bureaucrats" making health decisions for them instead of doctors. Well here is a newsflash. If you have private insurance, instead of a bureaucrat you have a CEO making your health care decisions. The CEO's goal is to make the company as profitable as possible. They do that by denying claims or telling you which procedures you can or can't get.

Who would want to go to school to be a doctor now adays. No matter what insurance you have take a look at what they pay the doctor. It is a joke. Insurance company's and Exxon ... see a common thread?

ok, so the staff at SUNY Stony Brook and the univ med center have Empire Plan as NYS employees, but they won't even be able to use their own insurance at their own hospital? ridiculous.

i have empire and pay $18-20 copay per visit, not $7.00.

Yes, with FOR-PROFIT privatized health insurance, consumers have rip-off high rates and limitations in what care is allowed for them.

Executives at WellPoint , Empire's parent company, want to
increase their own salaries and bonus payouts by many millions $$$$$$$$$$ while screwing the public and cutting services, as usual.

It's past time to give these rabid INSURANCE PROFITEERS some competition with a national health insurance option for consumers.

Newsday-glad you finally got around to this story--other more local news outlets and NPR broke this story earlier this week--where have you been?

First, a letter dated July 2 that takes effect July 31 is NOT "30 days notice," at least by my calendar. Second, we didn't receive our letter until July 8, and that clearly isn't 30 day's notice. The letter may have been dated July 2, but who knows when it was mailed?
Another case of the insurance company playing fast and loose with the truth.

WTF? These are state hospitals. Public hospitals. It is time for NYS to kick Empire BCBS to the curb as the state's insurer. NY state is one or possibly even their largest group. It's high time that the state took the control back. They would go bankrupt without NY State as a customer.

Ehh and Well Actually have good points.

The employees are there to help but can't get help....
The state hospitals should all up and leave Empire... then Empire might pucker their rearend

Don't get me wrong, I don't like the insurance companies, and I think they should be not-for-profits, but in this case its the alliance (of 3 east end hospitals) asking for a 60 percent rate hike. That is a really high rate hike.

blue cross/blue shield pays every other hospital in suffolk county a higher rate and these four hospitals are just asking to be reimbursed the same rates as the rest of county hospitals.

A typical med insurance company. Next they will be cancelling coverage for cancer patients so they can profit even more. We need a whole new system. Cigna is just as bad.

apache wrote:

Suck it up people,,,the worst is yet to come under Obama,,,,and just think no one wanted to vote for McCain, neither one of them are or were any good,,,,Bush was no bargain and did a lot wrong and I could not stand to look at him on t.v. but monkey face is really someone I can not stand to look at with his lying fast talking ways,,,America voted him in and now the rest of us who did not are stuck with him,,

You are just a bigoted Ahole. Get over it.