A Knoxville, Tenn.-based insurer will stop offering plans in 2016, making it the sixth insurance co-op formed under the Affordable Care Act to shut its doors, according to The Hill.
Community Health Alliance, which has 27,000 Tennesseans enrolled, will offer coverage until Dec. 31, according to The Commercial Appeal. The co-op was one of 23 programs that received federal funding to create alternatives to traditional insurance plans.
The decision to shut down CHA was made after it lost $22 million in 2014, combined with $3.7 million in anticipated losses for 2015, according to a July report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General. Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak said the state decided to cut the co-op upon learning it would receive less than expected through the risk corridor program, which helps stabilize premiums and prevent inaccurate premium setting for health plans offered through the exchanges.
"With thousands of Tennesseans' coverage hanging in the balance, [the co-op's] financial success could not be guaranteed," commissioner Julie Mix McPeak wrote in a statement.
The Tennessee co-op isn't the only one to end its coverage. Kentucky's co-op collapsed less than a week ago. Another co-op serving Iowa and Nebraska shut down in February, and New York's co-op will close by the end of the year.