Press Release: Call for temporary receivership of Commonwealth Care Alliance

With news that Commonwealth Care Alliance (CCA), a health plan serving thousands with the most significant health care needs, faces major financial hurdles, the Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) has called on the state to place CCA into temporary receivership. DPC, a leading statewide disability rights and advocacy organization, believes a temporary receivership is urgently needed to ensure that CCA’s unique person-centered, member-directed model of care remains available to the disability community, now and in the future.

DPC, which has played a key role in fighting to preserve CCA’s model of care, has been working with state regulators and other stakeholders to protect CCA members as questions regarding CCA’s future surfaced in recent months. DPC now sees CCA’s members at a crossroads, where decisive action by the state to temporarily assert direct oversight of CCA is needed to preserve access to the health care services they need.

“We appreciate the hard work of many to ensure the next phase of CCA is as successful as its members deserve. But that no longer appears possible without the state providing direct oversight,” DPC’s Executive Director Harry Weissman said. “CCA’s membership of people with complex care needs is a magnitude larger than any other health plan of its kind in the state, and it’s imperative that population continue to receive the support they need under the plan’s unique care model.”

CCA, widely considered an invaluable community trust, is not an ordinary non-profit insurance company. It was built by its founder, Dr. Robert Master, in discussion with a group of people with disabilities. CCA’s dignity-based model driven by the independent living philosophy was designed with the disability community to be different. DPC played a key role in advancing CCA’s model of care at a time when it was considered the flagship for One Care, MassHealth’s pioneering program for serving people with disabilities eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. According to Weissman, “people with complex needs can’t just switch from one plan to another. They are at risk of losing long-term relationships with primary care providers, specialists, and hospitals with expertise in their particular condition.” Weissman also noted that “what happens to CCA has consequences not just for CCA’s members and Massachusetts’ health care system, but for the future of the federal government’s Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) program for which CCA and One Care are the models.”

DPC was founded to play the role it is now exercising by calling on the state to seek temporary receivership of CCA. If the state assumes the role of receiver of CCA, a precedent set by the Supreme Judicial Court will allow DPC and the community it represents to continue to have a seat at the table where CCA’s next steps will be determined. DPC is committed to partnering with state policymakers and respects the difficult decisions they face.

DPC is represented by Health Law Advocates (HLA) in its efforts to protect CCA’s members. HLA is a non-profit public interest law firm with nearly 30 years of experience representing marginalized populations threatened with loss or denial of life-saving health care. HLA itself is invested in preserving CCA’s unique care model. It authored CCA’s original legal framework at its founding by Dr. Master. HLA set CCA up as a non-profit membership organization with Health Care For All and the Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL) as its governing organizational members to ensure it remained accountable to the concerns of consumers, especially those with disabilities.

“The key to our position is that CCA’s unique care model has to be preserved as it was originally intended,” said HLA’s Executive Director Matt Selig. “We have full confidence in the state to sort out CCA’s challenges through the receivership process.”

Disability Advocates Advancing our Healthcare Rights (DAAHR), a coalition of over 30 disability, elder, and health care organizations, will be holding a virtual forum on March 18 at 2pm to hear from members of CCA and One Care about their needs and experiences. DAAHR was formed by DPC and BCIL in 2012 to promote policies that improve health care access by raising the voices of people with disabilities in Massachusetts on key issues that affect them.