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Covered Oregon To Abandon State Website, Use Federal System

News that the board of Oregon’s failed state-based marketplace, set up under the Affordable Care Act, voted to move to the Federal site generated heavy national coverage over the weekend. Friday night, the CBS Evening News (4/25, 6:40 p.m. EST) reported, “Today, the state of Oregon said that after months of trying, it cannot get its state health insurance web site to work. It hasn’t signed a single customer, and it is pulling the plug. It is the first state to do that.” CBS’ Nancy Cordes said, “the board of Oregon’s exchange admitted defeat, voting unanimously to stop trying to fix the web site. It is a $248 million failure, but state health officials calculated it would have cost $78 million more to get the web site working, compared to just $4 to $6 million to simply join 14 other states on the federal exchange.” CBS News noted that “several other states, including Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Maryland, are all still trying to get their web sites to work properly as well.”

        Jason Millman wrote in the Washington Post Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (4/26, Millman) “Wonkblog” that Cover Oregon officials are scheduled to meetMonday and Tuesday with CMS officials on the transition. The Post calls the decision “a disappointment” for Oregon and its Gov. John Kitzhaber (D), “who tried to position the state at the forefront” of the Affordable Care Act’s debut.

        The Wall Street Journal Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (4/26, Dooren, Subscription Publication) reported that Oracle Corp., which built Oregon’s troubled site, said it would assist with the transition to the Federal website. A remaining issue is how to handle people who may need to switch between state-run Medicaid enrollment and the Federal exchange.

        The Oregonian Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (4/26, Manning) reported that “Cover Oregon closed one of the sorrier chapters in the history of Oregon state government.” The state’s new chief information officer, Alex Pettit, told state officials that moving ahead with the state’s site presented both too much risk and cost. Oregon will still need to hire a systems integrator for the transition. The Oregonian notes that “Cover Oregon has spent about $181 million in its 33-month existence,” while “most of the federal grant money that has funded the operation has been spent.”

        In its short report, USA Today Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (4/28, Kennedy) notes the move came “after months of website glitches and the move to paper enrollment forms.” In response, the paper notes, CMS spokesman Aaron Albright said, “We are working with Oregon to ensure that all Oregonians have access to quality, affordable health coverage in 2015.”

        The Los Angeles Times Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (4/28, Ganga) reported that Pettit said after the vote that there “wasn’t anything wrong with the vision. … This was not a failure of policy. The failure was in the build.”

Read full article here.

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.
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White House Expected to OK Another ACA Extension

The Obama administration is expected to announce yet another delay in the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.  According to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, insurers will likely be allowed to continue selling non-compliant health policies for another 12 months.

The policies were originally meant to be discontinued in November, thanks to a last-minute reprieve from President Obama. Now, it appears that policyholders will be able to renew non-compliant plans again, meaning some policies could stay in place through 2016 depending on anniversary date.

Read the full report here.

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

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ACA Tidbit

Under the Affordable Care Act, premiums can only vary based on the following factors: age, family composition, geographic area, and tobacco use.

Age:

  • Premium rates cannot vary by age for enrollees under the age of 21.
  • Premium rates cannot vary by age for enrollees age 64 or older.
  • Premium rates can vary by age for enrollees between the ages of 21 and 63, on each birthday, until a person turns 63.
  • Older enrollees cannot be charged more than 3 times the amount that younger enrollees are charged.

Family Composition:

  • Premiums may vary based on family composition.

Geographic Area:

  • Geographic rating areas are established by each state. If a state does not choose its geographic rating areas, it will default to rating areas established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Tobacco Use:

  • Tobacco users cannot be charged more than 1.5 times the rate of non-users.

Survey: Employees Asking About Impact Of Health Care Reform

Key survey findings

— About 90% of self-funded employers indicated that they don’t plan to move any of their covered population to either public marketplaces or private exchanges in the immediate future. During this time, employers will review what peer businesses are doing and the success and viability of the exchanges.

— Over the next four years, employers indicated they will offer more high deductible health plans and decrease the number of health maintenance organizations, point of service plans and preferred provider organization options. There is uncertainty about the number of employers planning to offer only high deductible health plans.

— Over 70% of responding employers indicated they will not increase salaries for employees who obtain insurance coverage from the public marketplaces.

— Almost 70% of employers are developing their own ACA messaging, with few relying solely on their health plan. The types of information being communicated include: open enrollment options, an overview of the ACA and its impact on benefit programs.

— Responding employers have found that employees are most concerned about the impact of the ACA on their benefits (64%), if their out of pocket costs will go up (63%) and want to know about the exchanges (53%).

— Key areas of focus for employers moving forward in complying with the ACA are: educating employees about ACA (71%), benefit design options to reduce exposure to excise tax (59%); and incentives for wellness provisions (49%).

Click here to read full press release.

Study: Reveals Insurance Premiums Rise Slowly

A study released Tuesday revealed a relatively slow uptick in the cost of employer-sponsored health insurance for the second year in a row. The news is covered widely in print and online, with many of the reports mentioning a tenuous connection between the slowdown in cost growth and the Affordable Care Act.

On the front page of its Business Day section, the New York Times reports on a study released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that the cost of employer-provided health insurance “increased by relatively modest amounts for the second year in a row.”

According to the data, the average annual premium for a family is now $16,351, a four percent jump from last year. The article calls this increase “relatively tame, at least by historical standards for health care.” Still, though, it is “a far bigger increase than for wages, which grew 1.8 percent” in the last year. After explicating the findings of the study, the article discusses the “debate” over whether the ACA “might be having an effect even though it is not yet fully implemented.”

Click: here for full article.