PEORIA (WEEK) — OSF Healthcare stopped accepting Meridian Healthcare plans on December 15. OSF says Meridian, a Medicaid insurance provider, owes them millions.
Estella Robinson says this is more than just a business disagreement, she says OSF and Meridian are playing with her family’s lives.
“Why? Just because you can’t get you money, it’s a money thing, my child’s life is worth more than your money,” said Robinson.
Robinson says both her sister and daughter were forced to delay important doctor’s appointments when OSF stopped accepting Meridian. A few weeks ago, Robinson says she got a notice from OSF, “Saying…Meridian will no longer be a part of their network and appointments started disappearing.”
A few days later Robinson said she received a letter from Meridian stating that her daughter’s primary care doctor had been changed.
“It’s upsetting to me because my child has always been with OSF since about 30 minutes after she was born at Methodist, she had to be transported because she was a premature baby,” added Robinson.
Robinson’s 21-year-old daughter, Kia Williams, suffers from several medical issues including depression and anxiety, all of her doctors are at OSF.
Robinson says she is now switching providers to make sure her family can stay at OSF, but that does not mean they are out of the woods quite yet. Kia’s new plan with Illincare does not take affect until March 1. Estella claims until then, they cannot book an appointment or receive any sort of care from OSF. Kia says she is left devastated.
“You’re playing with my health and I’m already doing my best to try to stay on task and take care of my well being but taking away my appointments is not helping me,” said Kia.
