No Virginia, all is not peaches and sunshine in the formerly blissful RochesterChiro neck of the woods. MVP Healthcare who pushed in by taking over the more quality oriented Preferred Care, is now flexing muscles over the local chiropractors. There are so many lies floating out of the MVP machinary it’s like being a long tailed cat in a room full of lying liars in rocking chairs trying to avoid the lies — (which is to say there are a lot of them…lies, that is, not long tailed cats. Although there may be a lot of long tailed cats too but that’s not really important right now and I don’t know why you’re bothering me with those details).
Preferred Care was interested in getting doctors, and especially chiropractors, to participate in the most excellent NCQA Back Pain Recognition Program (NCQA BPRP). They were also interested in paying Rochester chiropractors a fair wage and not making them jump through needless paperwork administrative hoops so long as they were providing good quality, evidence based care to their members. Preferred Care was interested in forging relationships with Rochester healthcare providers and was trying to stand for quality in healthcare — they were making strides in that regard and I was very proud to be a provider for them.
MVP recently announced that, now that they have taken over Preferred Care, they are canceling the chiropractic contracts mid year (!), outsourcing the chiropractic panel to a horrible third party administration company, and forcibly cutting fees — by 33%!
To add salt to the wound, they are telling their members things like “Rest assured: if you were a Preferred Care member, your benefits are staying exactly the same. This is a change in name only.”
Really? The benefits are the same? But if you are canceling my doctor’s contract and my doctor is forced to leave your plan, why don’t my benefits feel the same? If you are using a different company to manage the chiropractic panel and it will now be much more difficult for me to get the care I need, how is that a change in name only?
They are also saying “Your benefits stay exactly the same. Your coverage stays the same. Our customer service stays the same.”
Really? Same customer service? By outsourcing the administration for an entire profession do you think the local reps will have a clue how things are run or will any chiropractic questions be shipped off to the inept third party in California? We dealt with that company years ago before Preferred Care had the good sense to ditch them. And I know they’ve gotten even worse since that nightmare. This is like the joke of taking milk out of the fridge, smelling that it is spoiled and putting it back for someone else to dispose of — only it’s no joke and I’m not buying your spoiled milk.
How about, “we are still the same company and your employees still have the same coverage“
I’ve also gotten bullshit letters in the mail citing MVP’s commitment to quality. Really? Quality? Quality is trashing the NCQA BPRP program and all the time, money and effort put toward it by Preferred Care and Rochester chiropractors — a program hailed as one of the best opportunities to improve on the treatment of low back pain ever developed and provide benchmark quality care measures in chiropractic — but at the same time MVP execs are tooting your own horn about your own company’s NCQA recognition? WTF MVP? That’s not quality…that’s marketing.
Or perhaps your defination of quality is destroying the relationships chiropractors have spent years building with Preferred Care so that MVP can eliminate jobs in Rochester, outsource management and not even invite local doctor participation in the major changes that are occurring to their contracts? Oh, but we are free to negotiate those contracts individually, right? Sure. You’ll meet with each of us, listen to our individual concerns and tailor fit each contract to each doctor. Suuuuuure.
Oh, did I forget to mention this lie: “MVP Health Care will continue this dedication to the Rochester community”
Local job cuts? In this economy? Yeah, that shows your true dedication — to the dollar. And every extra dollar you can squeeze out of the Rochester community.
Interested in helping protect your Preferred Care benefits? Ask your chiropractor if he or she is staying on panel with MVP. Call MVP member services and ask how they plan to keep your chiropractic coverage the same. Find out if you have an out of network benefit for chiropractic. Ask your employer if MVP is kicking back some of the money they expect to save by outsourcing chiropractic.
I also understand it’s possible to switch to Excellus BC/BS mid year. Might want to strongly consider sending a message with your wallet….I know MVP sure has.
