We're here and bigger than ever.

A friend approached my desk in March with her phone in hand. Her husband had taken a photo of a confusing sign at his specialist’s office, which said that the practice was no longer contracted with NHP because we no longer participated in MassHealth. But my friend’s husband was a commercial member, so was his doctor still in the network?

The more things change, the more they stay the same
I made a quick call to the provider’s office and was able to clear things up very quickly. The practice was relieved to hear that they were still contracted with NHP. They didn’t want to turn away their NHP patients – especially since NHP’s commercial membership is growing so quickly. But it’s no wonder that even seasoned health-care professionals are confused. So far, 2018 has been a wild ride.
The transition to accountable care organizations
On March 1, 2018, MassHealth moved about 850,000 members to 17 new Accountable Care Organization (ACO) plans with the goal of providing more coordinated, cost effective, high-quality care.

The ACOs have shifted the landscape for Medicaid and caused some confusion among commercial providers and patients. Since March, NHP has been reaching out to providers, in groups or one practice at a time -- like when I helped out my coworker’s husband’s practice – to reassure our network providers of three things:

1. NHP has had a bustling commercial business for more than 30 years – and we still do.
   We’re evolving, and our commercial membership is bigger than ever with members across the state of Massachusetts coming from small and large business, the Health Connector, and intermediary partners.
2. All network providers are still contracted for NHP commercial members
   The changes to MassHealth don’t affect our commercial members or our commercial contracts with providers. If you were part of our network before, you still are.
3. Not sure if you’re contracted? We can help.
   Email providerservice@nhp.org with your practice name and billing NPI. We are happy to verify your participation in our network. And if you’re not currently participating, we are happy to help you with that too! In fact, since the announcement that NHP will be the exclusive administrator for Partners in 2019, many uncontracted providers joined our network so they can grow their business with us.

Click here for more information on becoming a contracted provider with NHP.