CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois legislative panel approved a temporary health insurance plan Tuesday that officials say will increase options and decrease confusion for nearly 200,000 state employees and retirees, many of whom saw their coverage put in limbo by a court decision last week.
The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability unanimously approved the plan at an emergency hearing in Chicago.
The vote gave the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services the power to negotiate 90-day contracts with health insurance vendors that will start July 1.
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Department Director Julie Hamos said the goal of the temporary contracts is to provide "continuity of care" as litigation involving the state's health insurance plans works its way through the courts.
"(State employees) should feel relieved that there will be no break in their health care coverage as of July 1," Hamos said after the vote. "We're trying not to create more confusion for public employees."
All but one of the current health insurance contracts for state employees expire on June 30. The state had awarded new contracts for two kinds of coverage — "open access plans" and HMOs — to begin July 1. But on Friday, Sangamon County Judge Brian Otwell placed a stay on the open access plan contracts as part of a lawsuit filed by health insurance companies upset that they weren't chosen by the state.
Those open access plans are the only health care option for employees, retirees and their families across wide swaths of the state, and Hamos said statewide coverage was impossible without the plan option. If the temporary contracts aren't put in place, thousands of state employees will be forced to choose new health care providers that, in some cases, are far from their existing ones.
Adding to the chaos, officials said, was that state employees must make their health insurance selections for the coming year by Friday, and the court decision made it unclear what options were going to be available.
Legislators, state officials and health insurance companies said frantic state employees contacted them in droves in recent days, and one company received 25,000 phone calls in five days.
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