Community Health Alliance Closes

A sad day in Tennessee. Community Health Alliance due to huge internal problems Com TN will no longer offer insurance coverage next year. This will be forcing about 27,000 enrollees to find new TN health insurance plans.

The Tennessee Obamacare insurance cooperative, created under the Affordable Care Act, will continue to pay out existing claims but will wind down its coverage by not taking on new customers, which it has not done since January 2015 .

The decision was based on the co-op’s financial condition, according to the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, and ends months of uncertainty about its future. The alliance had stopped selling its plans on the federal exchange in January after its low-cost plans attracted more enrollees than expected, and their ability to handle the high volume came into question.

“This was not a decision that the Department took lightly, but it was the right decision,” Julie Mix McPeak, commerce and insurance commissioner, said in a statement. “With thousands of Tennesseans’ coverage hanging in the balance, Community Health Tenn financial success could not be guaranteed. 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.”

TN active members will keep their insurance coverage through 2015 as long as premiums are paid. However, they must enroll again during the Open Enrollment period, which begins Nov. 1, 2015. To shop health plans in 2016, consumers must enroll by Dec. 15, 2015 for a Jan 1 start date, and have until 01.31.2016 until Open Enrollment closes. They will be able to choose from four remaining carriers on the federal marketplace, which they can shop for on www.applicationforobamacare.com.