Stony Brook hospital to take insurance from NY exchange

Stony Brook University Hospital will now be taking at least one health insurance -- Health Republic -- from New York's health insurance exchange.

The hospital announced Friday that it had reached an agreement with MagnaCare.

MagnaCare, which provides health insurance to companies and unions in New York and New Jersey and has about 70,000 doctors and other health care providers, does not offer health insurance on the state's exchange. But it leases networks to both Health Republic and Oscar, new insurers that do.

A source confirmed Saturday that Stony Brook's agreement with MagnaCare means that Health Republic members would be able to use the hospital in-network.

It was not clear whether the agreement extends to Oscar.

Earlier this month, Dr. Reuven Pasternak, Stony Brook's chief executive, said that the state hospital, the largest in Suffolk, was not taking any of the eight exchange plans available in the county because the reimbursement rates being offered were too low.

"We are pleased to have been able to amend our existing agreement with MagnaCare to include in-network coverage for thousands of Long Islanders," Pasternak said in a statement Friday.

Health Republic has the second-highest percentage of enrollees -- 16 percent -- of any of the insurance companies on the exchange.

Lauren Sheprow, a Stony Brook spokeswoman, said the hospital was still in talks with five other insurers.