Central Oregon’s only managed-care plan for Medicare recipients will get an increase in federal funding in March.

The increase in funding, made possible by the Benefits Improvement and Protection Act (BIPA) passed by Congress in December, will keep Clear Choice Health Plans from having to increase its rates this year, according to Pat Gibford, chief executive officer of Clear Choice.

Gibford said Clear Choice will get an average of $50 more per member per month from the federal government starting March 1. The plan will set aside about 60 percent of the money to put in a stabilization fund to offset the rising cost of health care and use 40 percent to increase payments to physicians, she said.

About 7,000 seniors in 10 Central and Eastern Oregon counties are enrolled in Clear Choice, one of the only MedicarePlus-Choice plans in the country that is owned by doctors and other medical providers.

The company was formed two years ago by Central Oregon Independent Health Services, a group of Central Oregon medical professionals.

The company had to increase its rates last year to offset rising medical costs, Gibford said. It gave people the choice of paying the same premium, $49.50 a month, for a scaled-back benefits plan or increasing their premiums to $69.50 a month for the traditional Clear Choice plan.

Gibford said the plan receives an average of $425 per member per month from the government and that will increase to about $475 with the Medicare relief bill.

Dave Rokosky, a health insurance specialist with federal Health Care Financing Administration, said BIPA is intended to help managed-care companies stay in business and to entice those companies that have dropped Medicare patients to begin offering Medicare plans again.

In Oregon and Washington alone, five managed-care plans have dropped Medicare patients in the last year, affecting about 38,000 beneficiaries, Rokosky said.

Managed-care companies are given the choice to use the BIPA money to reduce premiums, increase benefits, establish a stabilization fund, increase payments to providers or reduce co-payments. Rokosky said most plans in Oregon are using some of the money to help increase payments to providers to stabilize their provider network.

”One of the major challenges is providers who feel they are not being paid enough,” Rokosky said.

According to the Associated Press, some health plans in Portland and the valley are decreasing their rates because of the boost. Kaiser Permanente is reducing its monthly rates from $89 to $81 and from $190 to $176. Providence Health Plans is reducing its rates from $69.50 to $39, and Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield will lower rates from $54 to $41 for its basic plan and from $149.60 to $136.60 for its plan with prescription coverage. Pacificare will keep its premiums at $55 a month.

However, Gibford said that rural areas are receiving less money than urban areas.

Health plans in Portland and other areas with a population greater than 250,000 will see their average minimum reimbursement rates raise from around $415 per month to $525 per month.

She added that Clear Choice owners want to put most of the money in a contingency fund to ensure the future of the plan.

”There is no guarantee this is going to last,” Gibford said of the extra money.

”What if it goes away in a year?”

Talk around the industry, she said, is that the relief is ”too little too late” for many managed-care plans. And if the government starts requiring plans to cover prescription drugs, more relief will be needed.

But, she said, Clear Choice is committed to staying in the region. The plan is breaking even and is on its way to reaching its goal of signing up 10,000 members.

”We had no intention of leaving even before this,” Gibford said.

”We’re not losing money and we have a commitment to the community.”