Urbana, Ill.-based Carle Health will shut down its insurance businesses at the end of 2025.
In a statement shared with Becker’s on May 22, Carle Health said Health Alliance and FirstCarolinaCare will exit all lines of business, including Medicare Advantage, at the end of the year.
In February, Health Alliance and FirstCarolinaCare said they would exit the individual and employer markets but would remain in the MA market.
Coverage for current Medicare Advantage members will continue through the end of 2025.
“Our decision to exit the insurance market comes at a time when market dynamics and plan designs have made it increasingly difficult for provider-owned health plans to remain sustainable,” Carle Health President and CEO James Leonard, MD, said in the statement.
Champaign, Ill.-based Health Alliance has more than 380,000 members in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio. FirstCarolinaCare has more than 15,000 members and is jointly owned by Carle Health and Pinehurst, N.C.-based FirstHealth of the Carolinas.
Several other health systems have chosen to discontinue their health plans. Farmers Branch, Texas-based Southwestern Health Resources shut down Care N’ Care, its Medicare Advantage plan, at the end of 2024. Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine plans to discontinue its health plan at the end of 2025.
Other health systems have chosen to sell their health plans to larger payers or other system-owned plans.
Dr. Leonard previously told The News-Gazette that competitors showed little interest in purchasing Health Alliance.
