Emblem Health to Drop 750 Doctors from Network

One of New York State's largest insurers is dropping hundreds of physicians in small medical practices from its network. The move is one more hit to the traditional doctors' office — many of which have joined larger groups in recent years. 

Emblem Health says the 750 doctors it's purging represent only about 2 percent of its total network.

The non-profit says it is increasingly working with large-volume, multi-specialty medical practices, so that it can shift to so-called "value-based" healthcare, in which providers receive a fixed fee per patient rather than a payment for every doctor visit, medical test and specialty referral. Under these managed care arrangements, medical providers typically get bonuses for reducing costs, and they risk being penalized if patients incur too many expenses, most often in hospitals.

Medicaid and Medicare are both shifting more and more patients into managed care arrangements.

The Emblem decision only affects members of the company's HIP subsidiary — but that's still tens of thousands of patients.

The Medical Society for the State of New York, the state physicians group, has asked insurance regulators in Albany to intervene.