Border Line Purge To Fitness

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- A Seminole County doctor says a New York insurance company is putting her neediest patients in danger. The two have worked out a contract, but the insurance company has not signed and returned it and, until they do, she said her hands are tied.

Patients with Amerigroup HMO are required to come to a Seminole County office, but they are no good options. Either the two doctors work for free, the patients pay 100 percent out of pocket or they don't get treatment at all."I feel like my hands are tied. I want to do what's best for my patients, but I don't know what else to do," said pediatrician Debra Santasiero.Santasiero is in a David and Goliath battle with the Amerigroup insurance corporation."I'm very frustrated, because I've taken care of these kids since they were babies. I've watched them grow up until they're teenagers," she said.Santasiero says Amerigroup has gotten lost in their own red tape, letting a contract for more than 500 of her neediest patients expire without executing a new contract."It's not what they've done, it's what they haven't done. They haven't cut through their red tape. They haven't cut through their bureaucracy," she said.Eyewitness News spoke with the New York-based company. They admitted significant administrative errors on their part led to the breakdown. But, for now, patients, mostly children, are left without care they desperately need."The only choice they have right now is to go to the emergency room," Santasiero said.Amerigroup took the issue quite seriously when Eyewitness News contacted them. They said they make no excuses and will get their top executives on the problem first thing next week. So far, it was the only office with the paperwork mix-up.Meanwhile, many of the patients at Santasiero's office still don't know their healthcare coverage is in limbo.

This article is taken from wftv.com