Health Plan Weekly

In the 2025 version of the government’s annual mega-regulation governing the Affordable Care Act exchanges, multiple proposals appear to be aimed at ensuring state-based marketplaces are adhering to the same standards that apply to the federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov. One health policy expert says it’s probably not a coincidence that the proposed policy changes would take effect the same year that conservative-leaning Georgia is slated to launch its own state-based exchange. 

“I see some proposals in here that are trying to safeguard against efforts to reduce the quality of exchange operations or run an exchange on the cheap,” says Sabrina Corlette, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.  

Recently, CMS revealed that health insurers Bright Health Group, Inc. and Friday Health Plans Management Services Company, Inc., have failed to pay $1.1 billion that they owe to other health insurers through the Affordable Care Act’s risk adjustment program. While Friday will never be able to pay its share — since state regulators have taken over the failed insurer — the government’s repayment agreement with Bright is raising questions about whether the current rules governing ACA risk adjustment need an overhaul. 

“Insurers that attract high-cost enrollees need to be able to count on being compensated by the risk adjustment system, and if they’re not going to be compensated, then insurers will be less willing to offer generous plan designs,” Matthew Fiedler, Ph.D., a fellow with the Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, tells AIS Health, a division of MMIT. 

In 2024, managed care organizations will have to manage more complex care coordination requirements and compliance with ambitious equity goals in many states — even as Medicaid programs have been forced to step up reimbursement rates across many care categories. That’s according to the 2023 edition of KFF's annual survey of state Medicaid officials, which was released on Nov. 14. 

The overwhelming majority of states are increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates across many care categories. Forty-eight states increased rates for at least one care category in 2023, and 47 will do the same in 2024. Only 21 states implemented at least one rate restriction in 2023, and 19 expect to do so in 2024. 

That means total state spending for the safety net health insurance program is likely to increase, despite the ongoing reduction in total enrollment due to the return of eligibility redeterminations. Medicaid spending per enrollee is likely to increase in 2024, KFF found, while total Medicaid spending growth in the surveyed states will likely be 8.3% in 2023, down from 9.8% in 2022. 

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee seems poised to take up legislation that would make permanent the significant, pandemic-era reforms to Medicare telehealth rules, including rules governing site of care origination and audio-only telehealth encounters, which are otherwise set to expire at the end of next year. Medicare Advantage plan and provider trade groups back the legislation and have pushed for telehealth reforms to be permanent when they were up for renewal in previous legislative cycles. 

Emergency reforms to Medicare reimbursement rules were a key reason that the telehealth industry boomed in recent years. Telehealth was the only option for many types of outpatient care during the early parts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and patients, plans and providers became accustomed to using telehealth modalities for a wide variety of low-acuity encounters. Those encounters wouldn’t have been reimbursable if it weren’t for temporary, emergency reforms of Medicare telehealth billing rules passed as parts of COVID relief bills and executive orders by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden.  

Despite the program receiving continued pushback from progressive lawmakers, data from the since-renamed Global and Professional Direct Contracting (GPDC) Model suggests that it is making significant strides, with participants driving gross savings exceeding $870 million in 2022, more than seven times the $117 million in gross savings reported for performance year 2021. At least five known Medicare Advantage sponsors have subsidiaries participating in the model, which allows Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to share risk and receive capitated payments for serving fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries. 

CMS, in a fact sheet highlighting the performance year 2022 data, observed that the total financial savings increased year over year because of “growth in model participation, a longer performance period in PY2022 (12 months vs. 9 months in PY2021), and performance improvements by model participants as they gained experience.” Last year, 99 Direct Contracting Entities participated in the model, up from 53 DCEs in 2021, with 21 million beneficiary months, compared with 3 million beneficiary months in 2021.