New York Medicaid HMO Sends out Layoff Notices to Nearly 900 Workers Effective in March of This Year

It was just a few months ago that a Brooklyn hospital sold their HMO to Amerigroup so it seems these are the folks being laid off from the article below. The hospital needed the money and didn’t have much choice. Amerigroup is a publicly traded company.

Brooklyn Hospital Sells Off Its HMO To Amerigroup –They Need the Money for Health IT Updates and Pensions–All Four Brooklyn Hospitals Could Face Bankruptcy

It’s getting to be costly to run an HMO today unless it is part of a multi national US insurance company, who are also buying up HMOs. BD

Nearly 900 workers at one of the state's largest Medicaid HMO's have received layoff notices, as part of the sale of Health Plus to Amerigroup, a Virginia-based HMO with a small presence in New York.

Amerigroup says all 875 Health Plus workers got notices to fulfill a state legal requirement, but the company plans to keep "a substantial majority" of them as employees.

Layoffs would go into effect starting March 31.

Health Plus currently serves about 320,000 New Yorkers. Amerigroup said members will continue to receive the same benefits and have access to the same doctors and hospitals.

Health Plus was founded in 1984 by Lutheran Medical Center, in Brooklyn. Hospital officials said they need the $85 million they'll get from the sale of Health Plus.

Most of the five million New York State residents on Medicaid receive their coverage through Medicaid HMO's.