Home health care providers are feeling the repercussions of Univita Health’s collapse in Florida, with many companies owed payments they have yet to receive.
The third-party administrator for Florida’s Medicaid program filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 28. Meanwhile, some former Univita employees are suing the company, alleging they were not given 60 days’ notice in advance of layoffs.
Health care providers were rushing to determine if and how Univita would pay them for outstanding claims, Bobby Lolley, executive director of the Home Care Association of Florida, told The News-Press. Moreover, Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration was instructing health care providers to keep to providing services under their contracts. Univita owed many of these companies money, receivables varying from few thousand dollars to almost $1 million.
Now, Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration is demanding that insurance companies that contracted with Univita enable health care providers with outstanding claims to refile to receive payment.
The managed care plan companies have identified new medical equipment providers to replace Univita and patient’s cases are being authorized, Angela Kearley, a spokeswoman for Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida, told The News-Press.
The managed care plans of CarePlus and Humana have made arrangements with several home health and medical equipment providers to help in the transition of care, spokeswoman Nancy Hanewinckel said.
“When you have one company controlling almost all of the claim payments for every Medicaid and most Medicare HMO beneficiaries with zero oversight from state officials, there’s bound to be a problem,” Lolley told The News-Press.
Written by Mary Kate Nelson
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