HMOs in Unstable
Condition: Members Bolt to Other Plans - 04/24/05
Article from the
Los Angeles Times online
HMOs,
once the top choice for Americans who get healthcare as a job perk, are so
last century. Tightly controlled health maintenance organizations have
steadily lost ground over the last decade to preferred provider organizations,
which offer greater choice of physicians and hospitals and direct access to
specialists — though at a higher price. HMOs garnered only 25% of the
employer-based health benefits market last year, down from a high of 31% in
1996, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a Menlo
Park, Calif.-based think tank. During the same period, PPOs nearly doubled
their market share to 55%...One of the most talked-about new plans is Tonik,
launched a few months ago by the California Blue Cross subsidiary of WellPoint
Inc., the nation's largest health insurer. Directed toward people in their
20s, Tonik seeks a coveted group insurers call the "young invincibles" because
they are rarely sick...The most controversial feature of Tonik is its
exclusion of any maternity coverage.
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