Connection: Nowhere To Turn

At least another 1,400 Eastern Washington residents will lose the services of their Medicare HMO this year, according to the Washington insurance commissioner.

Those older Americans have no other managed care plan to turn to, said Jim Stevenson, spokesman for the commissioner.

The 1,400 - all residents of Walla Walla County - may not be the last to lose their Medicare HMO this year. Some companies have until Oct. 1 to notify the federal government they are ending their plans.

But most of the people expected to lose coverage in the next round of HMO retreats live in Western Washington, Stevenson said.

Still, the loss of HMO coverage for Medicare customers has been significant for Eastern Washington residents for the past two years. Some 30,000 people living east of the Cascades lost Medicare HMO coverage in 1998.

Another 12,000 lost their coverage last year.

Health insurance companies have been abandoning Medicare HMOs, contending the reimbursement rates from the federal government are too low. Most of the people losing their HMO coverage live in rural areas, where coverage is more expensive.

People do not lose the basic Medicare coverage from the federal government. But many of the medical services covered by Medicare HMOs are not paid for by the basic government plan.