Boulder, Longmont providers drop Kaiser

The Boulder Valley Individual Practice Association and Longmont Clinic severed its relationship with Kaiser Permanente’s Private Healthcare Systems network on June 1.

That means patients in that network are forced to either find a new, in-network, physician or pay out-of-network costs to keep their same doctor.

Both organizations said they’d work with patients to provide health care so they can find a new physician or health-care provider.

Cathy Higgins, executive director of the individual practice association, which contracts with insurance companies on behalf of hundreds of independent physicians in Boulder County, said the association has continued working with patients to provide care despite trying to drop the Private Healthcare Systems network two years ago.

“We’re not trying to hurt the members,” she said.

Jack Campbell, Longmont Clinic administrator, said the clinic sees Private Healthcare Systems patients with and without Kaiser, but the change only will affect patients with Kaiser.

Some of those patients are Longmont city employees.

“It affects less than 35 percent of our employees,´ said Laurie Chavez, Longmont human relations analyst.

That’s because less than 35 percent of city employees enrolled in Kaiser Permanente’s Private Healthcare Systems network, which gave them the option of visiting the Longmont Clinic as an in-network provider, she said. But she said only 2 percent of the city’s claims were paid to the clinic.

The decision to terminate the network relationships was made by the individual practice association and the clinic, but both Higgins and Campbell said the plan wasn’t very good anyway.

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