Arizona's Meritus Health Partners to End Operation by The End of The Year

Arizona insurer Meritus Health Partners announced Tuesday that it would end all operations on December 31 for failing to raise additional funds.

According to the Arizona Daily Star, the non-profit health insurance co-op insures 59,000 people. That is 30 percent of the 154,000 Arizonans who bought policies from the federal marketplace. Those people now have to look for a new insurance provider by December 15, so that they will still get health coverage by January next year. According to the company, current customers, brokers, and medical providers will still get paid until the end of the year. Most of the company's customers come from Maricopa, Pinal, Mohave, and Pima countries.

A report by Becker's Hospital Review enumerated important details about the insurer. First is that CEO Tom Zumtobel announced the close a few weeks after the state Department of Insurance suspended the company from selling new policies and prohibited it from renewing current ones. Some 48,000 people insured under the company are from Arizona, while over 10,000 are from outside the marketplace. There is a special enrolment period for customers to enroll to a new health plan. The final deadline for current enrolees for 2016 coverage is only up to March 1.

"We've really been trying to understand all of our options, and opportunities and really at this stage we've exhausted them," said Zumtobel. "So we are working cooperatively with the Department of Insurance to really meet their supervisory order and wind the operation down."

Earlier in November, Phoenix Business Journal reported that Meritus tried to raise funds to get back in good standing with the Federal authorities after being cut off from the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplace.  The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid lend Meritus $93 million when it started its operations in 2012.

Insurance Department Director Andy Tobin, who suspended the company's rights to sell plans, said a bailout seemed unlikely for the company from the start.