Tennessee CO-OP Community Health Alliance to shutdown.

NASHVILLE – Community Health Alliance (CHA) has voluntarily entered state-approved runoff and will not offer insurance coverage in 2016.

The runoff decision came after careful analysis of the company’s current and future financial condition and lengthy discussions involving the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance (TDCI) and CHA. Created as a Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) under the Affordable Care Act, CHA has approximately 27,000 enrollees.

Runoff is when a business winds down its existing business and pays all related policy claims while ceasing to take on new customers.

CHA policyholders will keep their insurance coverage through Dec. 31, 2015 so long as they continue to pay premiums. To continue insurance coverage in 2016, consumers must re-enroll in a new healthcare plan during the next Open Enrollment period beginning Nov. 1. Consumers should enroll by Dec. 15, 2015 for coverage effective Jan. 1, 2016.

“This was not a decision that the Department took lightly, but it was the right decision,” TDCI Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak said. “With thousands of Tennesseans’ coverage hanging in the balance, CHA’s financial success could not be guaranteed. Ultimately, the risk of CHA's potential failure in 2016 was too great and would have caused substantial detrimental effects on the market as a whole if it were to collapse.”

Read the rest at: https://tn.gov/commerce/news/18562