State: Insurer Must Not Drop MedPartners

State regulators on Friday ordered a major health insurer to stop moving its members out of financially troubled MedPartners Provider Network Inc.

The Department of Corporations said it ordered Blue Cross of California not to transfer 120,000 members--now getting health care through MedPartners--to other medical providers.

The state said it took the action to prevent disruption in patient care. Regulators accuse Blue Cross of transferring its patients out of MedPartners without required state approval. Blue Cross officials could not be reached for comment.

State officials say they are trying to reorganize MedPartners and keep the organization intact. But since last week’s state takeover of MedPartners, several vendors that provide medical equipment and services have stopped doing business with the physicians practice management company’s clinics.

A spokesman for MedPartners parent company in Alabama said the vendors’ refusal to do business with its clinics is endangering care for its 1.3 million members in California. The spokesman, Robert Mead, blamed the state takeover for the disruption. “It’s in the department’s hands,” Mead said.