Rabbi Fried: Numerous families reached out to Chai Lifeline regarding the termination of the longstanding agreement between United Healthcare and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. United Healthcare is the last HMO to terminate their agreement with CHOP, following all other HMOs who terminated their contracts in the past.
If you’re a current patient at CHOP, you should have received communication from CHOP about how to arrange continuity of services.
Going forward, any new patients will be able to access CHOP only through single case agreements, which are generally very difficult to obtain from HMOs or in case of emergency through the ER. This is an urgent situation which can result in compromised care for the sickest children in Lakewood just because they come from low income families.
I urge you to contact the Governor’s office at 609-292-6000, http://nj.gov/governor/contact/, or PO Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625, and urge them to ensure that every child within the community has access to the best medical care possible.
Please watch video for more details.
I tried calling the governor’s office and they don’t have an option to leave a msg… any better ideas?
you can send a message online via this link nj.gov/governor/contact
or mail a letter to
State of New Jersey, Office of Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
There is no option to leave a voice mail…
They did the same shtick last year.
They both use us a pawns in their negotiation pricing fight.
This will just blow over again like last year.
@ Eli-they never went as far as to cut their contract. they may have suggested its coming but this is the first time they actually cut their contract completely, leaving many many Lakewood children without the care they so badly need.
Unfortunately, this is a lot more serious than just “blowing over” and we need to make our voices heard
I would love a sample letter to email to the governor. Can we get one?
Is this only jersey care united healthcare? i have united healthcare through oxford (paid private insurance), is that terminated, too?
All Oxford Liberty and Freedom plans that are employer sponsored or obtained on the individual market are in network with CHOP. Oxford Garden State doesn’t cover out of state facilities. The termination only applies to NJ Medicaid.
We tried leaving a message but the mailbox was full.
Used the option to contact the Governor via the website. Received an automated message back.
Contacted Gary Schaer’s Office. I did hear from them that they’re looking into it but that was last week.
Did receive letters from United that some of my kids may be eligible to retain their doctors if we apply for prior authorization – but it seems from some of the other verbiage sent that it would only be good for the next 4 months anyways.
Any other suggestions? As far as we know there is no way for an individual to purchase a health insurance plan in NJ that allows for out of state care – that privilege is reserved for group – purchased insurance. The UHCCP option was the last recourse for families who need care at CHoP.
Here’s an idea-Got off the Public Assistance and get private insurance. Enough with my tax dollars going to subsidize your healthcare.
Dear Megan,
As someone who lost their job of many years due to outsourcing to India and was forced to go onto public health care (once COBRA expired) despite it’s serious limitations due to the astronomical cost of decent private insurance for a family purchased not through an employer, I find your comment very insensitive.
Many people cannot afford private insurance. Many people work very hard but are not offered or cannot afford medical insurance.
Most people would love to have private insurance – but are not able to obtain it for one of several reasons.
FWIW, it’s my tax dollars too.
Our child was diagnosed en utero with a life threatening condition in CHOP’s SDU. He would not have survived birth without their expertise.
There is no other hospital in NJ that was equipped to deal with his condition which necessitated surgery at birth.
We had private insurance at the time – the bill after he BH came home after a 6 week stay in the NIICU was over 1 million dollars.
We maintained the private insurance for as long as we could until we were forced by the ACA to purchase individual insurance instead of group as our husband-wife business no longer qualified as a group.
Once we were no longer a group there was no option for out-of-state benefits for any of the insurances we could purchase. For the sake of our children we enrolled them in the only medicaid plan that would enable our children to receive the critical care they were getting at CHOP.
Can Chai Lifeline suggest wording for a letter to the Governor?
All Oxford Liberty and Freedom plans that are employer sponsored or obtained on the individual market are in network with CHOP. Oxford Garden State doesn’t cover out of state facilities. The termination only applies to NJ Medicaid.
Why do you need to go to Chop? There are great options in NJ…
CHOP has several facilities in NJ.
And no, we have not found other options in NJ that would be able to care for our special needs kids in the same comprehensive manner that CHOP has.
As a parent who who is wrote to officials about the issue, I think the following points are important when calling or writing letters:
1. While we understand that there’s excellent pediatric medical care in New Jersey, pregnant women and children with complex medical cases are unable to find care in New Jersey that’s comparative to the care CHOP provides. For people in these two categories, CHOP is often the only nearby place that can provide them with the medical services they urgently need.
2. Although HMOs claim that they make single case agreements available, they generally don’t grant it. In the rare cases when single case agreements are arranged, they take time to get, and time is usually of the essence.
3. Just because a family can’t afford private health insurance, they shouldn’t be unable to access the best medical care.
4. As a member of a community with the highest birth rate in the state, we want to ensure that our children have access to the best possible medical care, regardless of income.
We have a child that has been seeing a specialist in Chop. We can’t afford private insurance and we are at lost at this time. I have reached out to our Dr and he said there’s nothing that he can do for us. We tried the governors office but didn’t reach anyone. I wonder if there’s anything else we can do. If anyone had any success please share.
@Sam, when you have a loved one with cancer, try a local hospital.