New bill in response to falling-out between a big insurance company and a big health provider in Springfield

Posted on March 25, 2022
State Sen. Doris Turner (center) is sponsoring a bill in response to the falling-out between a big insurance company – Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois – and a big provider, Springfield Clinic. (Facebook/Senator Doris Turner)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Now there is a bill inspired by the falling-out between a big insurance company and a big health provider in Springfield.

A non-renewal between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and Springfield Clinic has customers scrambling. “Most of our consumers and constituents were complaining about the lack of providers that they had access to,” said State Sen. Doris Turner (D-Springfield), who has introduced a bill to grant more reasonable access to a network. “Hopefully, it will go a long way toward ensuring that this type of situation” – long drives to a new provider – “does not occur in the future.”

The department has already fined the insurer’s parent company $339,000.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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