ACA/Obamacare: When the Narrow Network Becomes the Narrowest

“WASHINGTON - Many health plans sold through Affordable Care Act marketplaces in 2015 are so limited that they don't offer patients access to some medical specialists such as endocrinologists, rheumatologists and psychiatrists, a study suggests.

That may be forcing some patients to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for any care provided by these specialists.

"This translates into huge cost burdens for patients," said Stephen Dorner, lead author of the study, which was published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.”

“To test the extent of narrow networks, researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health looked at provider directories in a sampling of 135 Silver health plans being sold in the 34 states that relied on the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace in 2015.

They expected to find plans with only a handful of physicians in some specialties. Instead, they discovered that nearly 15 percent of the plans did not include a single in-network physician for at least one specialty.” - Some ACA Plans May Exclude Specialists, Study Finds, 10/28/2015, insurancenewsnet.com

Link to the entire article appears below:

https://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/2015/10/28/some-obamacare-plans-may-exclude-specialists-study-finds.html