Dan Gottry - Blog

Dan Gottry's Blog

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

CIGNA Has Apparent Difficulty Meshing Hanger/Linkia's Reality With Its P/R

After a number of requests to CIGNA for information about how Linkia's reality relates to its Public Relations, responses do not come quickly.

Last month I wrote asking about a Hanger Office staffed by a non-certified clinician (according to both the ABC and BOC). This situation seemed to be inconsistent with CIGNA's earlier promise that Linkia is holding its Hanger facilities to the same high standard as non-Hanger facilities.

I also forwarded a question that was posed to me about a non-accredited Hanger office in Paducah, KY (with three ABC Certified practitioners) and another location in Jackson, TN that has no full-time certified practitioners and therefore could not be accredited.

After a number of requests and reminders, CIGNA has not yet been able to provide an answer.

Last week, in an article announcing the appointment of Bennett Rosenthal as a director (Bennett is a founding member of Ares Management, LLC, an investment management firm that is also a principal stockholder of Hanger), Hanger described its four units including Linkia, which Hanger describes as "the first and only provider network management company for the orthotics and prosthetics industry." Although the OPGA/POINT network doesn't meet Hanger's definition of a provider network management company, it now includes more than 1,300 independent orthotic and prosthetic locations compared to Hanger's 600+.

According to an article in a recent edition of "The O&P Edge", Hanger's CEO indicated that it does not require exclusivity in its agreements with insurance companies. Although CIGNA's communications tended to have be believing otherwise, that gives some hope that they could choose to expand their contracts to other non-Hanger providers, or perhaps even to the OPGA/POINT network.

I am anticipating learning more about OPGA/POINTS plans and opportunities at an upcoming meeting in the Phoenix area. If you are a practitioner who would like to learn more as well, please contact me for more information.

posted by Daniel Gottry at 6:58 AM