Rep. McInnis has recognized the importance of continuing cost contracts with this legislation, says Weber. If cost contracts are cancelled, all those people enrolled with Rocky Mountain HMO in Colorado will have their best option eliminated. To be viable, a risk plan must have a huge number of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled and receive an adequate payment from Medicare. In much of Colorado, there simply aren t enough people looking for additional Medicare coverage and the payment from the federal government is inadequate to make the economics of a risk contract work. We ve had a Medicare cost contract since 1977, and we know it works for our members, continues Weber.
Federal surveys show our members are very happy with our plans and service.
We rate higher than any other risk or cost Medicare HMO in Colorado in customer satisfaction. The majority of the 14,000 Medicare members enrolled with us live in rural areas where carriers are not willing to provide coverage under a risk contract. Rocky Mountain HMO has joined 12 other HMOs to form the Medicare Cost Contractors Alliance with the goal of ensuring Medicare beneficiaries continue to have the option of choosing enrollment in an HMO Medicare cost contract plan. The other alliance member plans are located in Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, upstate New York, Texas and Wisconsin.