Kentucky health insurance agents are facing an entirely new landscape after significant regulatory moves this month.
Days after Governor Matt Bevin shut down the state’s successful health insurance exchange, the Kentucky Department of Insurance ordered the liquidation of the nonprofit Kentucky Health Cooperative.
KYHC was placed in rehabilitation on October 29, and the Department of Insurance began oversight of the day-to-day operations of the co-op. It was unable to return to financial viability, however, and the order to shut it down was signed Monday by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip J. Shepherd.
“This is a regrettable situation, however, once we determined the degree of financial hazard, the decision to move to liquidation was an easy one,” said Kentucky Insurance Commissioner Brian Maynard.
“To continue an attempt to rehabilitate the fund would increase the risk of loss, jeopardizing both creditors and policyholders.”
Under the supervision of Franklin Circuit Court, the special deputy liquidators will begin terminating any remaining business of KYHC and will distribute the remaining assets in the order outlined in Kentucky statute.
Agents as well as providers with KYHC will be notified of the liquidation and the deadline for filing claims will be October 15.
All individual health insurance policies and most group plans terminated on January 1, 2016. Any remaining policies will terminate at the end of the month.
Documents will be available on both the DOI and KYHC websites.
