Doctors want further scrutiny of Horizon for-profit conversion

New Jersey's medical society and its allies believe the Blues plan's rationale for converting to a for-profit does not reflect current economic conditions.

By Emily Berry, AMNews staff. Dec. 8, 2008.

Opponents of the for-profit conversion of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey want state regulators to ask for a new application from the plan that takes into account the failing economy since the plan's application in August.

The Medical Society of New Jersey, the Alliance for Advancing Nonprofit Health Care, and QualCare, a New Jersey-based hospital and physician-owned nonprofit health plan, wrote a letter to the director of the New Jersey Dept. of Banking and Insurance and the state attorney general, calling for Horizon to withdraw its application or for the state to require a new one. The groups argued that the application should be amended to reflect the changes to the economy that have sent stocks plummeting and frozen the credit market.

"The political and economic world that Horizon knew [when it first applied] has changed substantially," said the letter. But it appears not to have interrupted the state's deliberations or convinced Horizon of the need to reconsider.

Paul Penna, spokesman for the state Dept. of Banking and Insurance, said the department had no authority to tell Horizon to resubmit its application. "It's Horizon's application, so it's not up to us to make a determination whether Horizon should or should not pull their application."

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