CRH among providers for lone Indiana marketplace insurance provider

Local residents attempting to find health care coverage on the Affordable Care Marketplace for 2018 were initially dismayed to learn that neither of the two plans available to Hoosiers offered Columbus Regional Hospital as a provider.

But the hospital said it signed a contract at deadline with one of the companies, CareSource, meaning patients in Bartholomew County will be able to use local hospital services instead of having to travel to Indianapolis or Seymour for healthcare.

When researching coverage options on the marketplace website, Debra Williams of Columbus was worried at first that she would not be able to use the local hospital for medical care.

“It just leaves us high and dry with no resources,” she said.

Without Columbus Regional Hospital and its physicians aligned with CareSource, the options were not looking good, said Allen Gifford of Columbus.

“We are retirees with adequate means to pay,” Gifford said. “This is purely an availability problem for us.”

But the new development regarding Columbus Regional has improved the outlook for customers scrambling to find coverage that will work for them.

For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.