Health Plan Weekly

✦ Centene Corp. said on May 12 that its Centurion subsidiary will take steps to expand access to telehealth for its incarcerated beneficiaries, address shortages of medical supplies in prison clinics, and offer holistic care for incarcerated beneficiaries. The company anticipates its expansion of telehealth will yield a 200% increase in care capacity and 3,000 more mental health visits per month. In addition, Centene recently launched a pilot program that offers incarcerated beneficiaries access to holistic care such as nutrition advice, preventive care and substance abuse counseling. Read more at https://bit.ly/36gd8Zu.

✦ America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association joined other organizations including the American Academy of Family Physicians and American Academy of Pediatrics in lobbying for more emergency funding for primary care practices. Arguing that the COVID-19 crisis “is leading to the rapid collapse” of many primary care practices, the groups asked HHS “to provide additional funding to independent and community-based primary care practices, including Medicaid providers, through the Provider Relief Fund general allotment as well as through the Public Health and Social Service fund.” Visit https://bit.ly/36qkEkH.

In an open letter to leadership in both chambers of Congress, a coalition of large employers asked lawmakers to take action in the following four areas of health policy as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

✦ “Providing affordable coverage in the immediate and longer term;

✦ Ensuring access to primary care clinicians;

Health plan members say they’re not hearing anything from insurers about the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey shows. But one health insurance insider says it’s possible that many plans have attempted to communicate, but just aren’t doing it well enough to break through.

The survey, from consumer insights and analytics firm J.D. Power, found that 60% of privately insured health plan members say their insurers have not provided any guidance or information related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has claimed more than 90,000 American lives as of press time. Nearly half — 48% — say their health plan has not shown concern for their health since the pandemic began.

The Trump administration recently released guidance that will allow the newly unemployed to retroactively opt into COBRA months from now, which could increase the risk of adverse selection and thus harm fully insured and self-funded employer plans’ risk pools. With millions of Americans suddenly unemployed, and employers reeling from sudden drops in revenue, a coalition of large companies is lobbying for the federal government to subsidize employer plans’ COBRA benefits.

Meanwhile, a proposal passed by the House would have the federal government pay full COBRA premiums for approximately nine months, making the program free to anyone eligible for it. That plan, included in the Heroes Act (H.R. 6800), could be a boon to employers and insurance carriers, but it faces challenges in the Senate and could harm individual insurance markets.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the U.S. economy, it would seem to be the perfect time for policymakers to explore a policy option that has garnered rare bipartisan support: automatic health insurance enrollment.

“We have huge numbers of people who are losing employer-based coverage; most of them are eligible for some kind of help, but we know historically most laid-off workers do not enroll in coverage for which they qualify,” said Stan Dorn, director of the National Center for Coverage Innovation and senior fellow at Families USA. “It’s just overwhelming to be grappling with job loss and therefore it becomes imperative to make enrollment as easy, seamless and automatic as possible.”