Health Plan Weekly

CMS recently said it received tens of thousands of complaints from people who were enrolled in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans without their consent by unscrupulous brokers during the first three months of this year. That led the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals (NABIP), a broker trade group, to criticize CMS for its handling of the situation and claim that all brokers had been unfairly blamed by the agency.  

But one industry expert says that there is “plenty of blame to go around” for the unauthorized enrollments, which can result in financial harm to plan members and insurers alike. 

Employers and private insurers, on average, paid 254% of what Medicare did for the same inpatient and outpatient services at the same facilities in 2022, according to a new RAND Corp. study.

The report examined data from more than 4,000 hospitals across all U.S. states except Maryland and found that average relative prices paid by private insurers increased from 241% of Medicare rates in 2020 to 254% in 2022, which was largely driven by growth in inpatient relative prices.

California recently became the latest state to implement a limit on health care spending growth, with a new state agency targeting an increase of no greater than 3% by 2029. Commercial payers have largely backed the spending targets, but providers have argued that the targets aren’t reachable and Medicaid stakeholders — including the state’s largest managed care organization — are concerned that the target may curtail access for beneficiaries and harm the solvency of safety net providers. 

The spending target was set by the board of the Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA), which was established in 2022. The board’s membership was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. The board set target spending growth rates of 3.5% in 2025 and 2026, 3.2% in 2027 and 2028, and 3.0% in 2029. OHCA will require payers regulated by the state and providers alike to meet the designated spending targets. Organizations that don't meet the spending targets will be subject to a state-overseen corrective action plan and possibly fines. 

A group of lawmakers is urging federal regulators to investigate UnitedHealth executives’ sale of company stock right after learning that the health care firm was the target of a Dept. of Justice (DOJ) investigation concerning its provider-acquisition spree. As for the investigation itself, one antitrust lawyer says it could take years before the DOJ files a case — but if it does, regulators could try to force the health care giant to spin off all or part of its Optum division. 

Meanwhile, the DOJ’s antitrust division on May 9 announced a new Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion, which it said will “guide the division’s enforcement strategy and policy approach in health care, including by facilitating policy advocacy, investigations and, where warranted, civil and criminal enforcement in health care markets.” Some of the competition concerns the task force will examine include “issues regarding payer-provider consolidation” and “serial acquisitions.”