Community Care Insurance Ends Contract With Hillcrest

Community Care insurance announced it is ending its contract with Hillcrest HealthCare System at the end of June. 

Community Care says Hillcrest has tried to collect more than $400,000 more from patients than what is allowed through their contract. 

The company says it will contact patients who need to choose another doctor. The company says this will affect about 6,500 of its members, which is less than 5 percent of its total membership.

CommunityCare says this does not affect anyone on the Senior Health or Advantage Medicare Plans.

Hillcrest says this comes as a surprise because it been working for months on re-negotiating the contract.

It says the billing practices are consistent with what's on Community Care's website. 

Hillcrest Healthcare System statement: 
“CommunityCare’s public notice of termination is surprising and disappointing, given that we have been working together for months on re-negotiating our contract. We vehemently deny any allegations of wrongdoing; to claim that any of the billing practices in question violate state law is an egregious misstatement not based in fact.

Hillcrest’s billing practices have been consistent with CommunityCare’s communication to the public through their website. CommunityCare has communicated for many years that some of their membership was covered by our contract and some were not; this information was clearly visible on their public website through their provider finder application. Our billing has been consistent with their communication of network alignment. 

The allegations made by CommunityCare are false and irresponsible. We will continue to defend our practices which are in adherence to all laws and regulations. Our focus, as always, is on our patients and providing them exceptional care.”