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Thursday, Dec 4 2014

Full Issue

Small Business Exchange Attracts Few Customers

The Washington Post examines why the SHOP exchanges are drawing so little interest, while a Colorado report notes that insurance carriers there are waiting for at least $20 million in government payments. Meanwhile, Minnesota trims its enrollment targets by a third and a baseball player is featured in an insurance ad in Maryland.

After a laundry list of glitches popped up last year, Obama administration officials set to work to fix the health law鈥檚 online insurance marketplace for small businesses. Now, two weeks after re-launching the federal exchange, it appears they have ironed out most of the technical problems. Now they have a different problem on their hands, one that no team of software engineers can solve: Disinterest from small employers. (Harrison, 12/3)

Snafus processing federal tax credits for 2014 health exchange customers have left Colorado insurance carriers waiting for payments totaling at least $20 million, exchange managers revealed on Monday. At the same time, an enrollment manager for Connect for Health Colorado in the western part of the state warned board members that she and fellow workers are having major problems enrolling people for 2015. The deadline to enroll for coverage that starts on Jan. 1 is Dec. 15. (Kerwin McCrimmon, 12/3)

MNsure is cutting its projection for commercial enrollment next year by one-third and says it will make up the lost revenue by cutting costs and spending federal grant money at a faster pace. Earlier this year, MNsure projected that about 100,000 people would buy private health plans through the state exchange by the end of 2015 鈥 an estimate that amounted to a reduction from initial projections for commercial enrollment. (Snowbeck, 12/3)

MNsure on Wednesday said it was cutting by about one-third the number of people it expects will enroll in private health plans through the exchange for 2015. That means MNsure will also see a drop in revenue, although officials say they expect to end the fiscal year next June with no red ink. (Zdechlik, 12/3)

A player for the Frederick Keys baseball team will be featured in a radio ad to urge Maryland residents to enroll in health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Maryland Health Care for All and the Frederick Keys are announcing the ad campaign on Thursday at the Keys鈥 stadium in Frederick. (12/4)

A story on NPR earlier this week described the 鈥渇amily glitch鈥 in the Affordable Care Act. That鈥檚 when people can鈥檛 afford their insurance at work but make too much to qualify for subsidies in the new insurance exchanges. Many of these mostly middle-income Americans will remain uninsured. It also got us wondering, who else is being left out by the health law? And who is getting coverage? (Rovner, 12/4)

In other news, giant聽health insurer Wellpoint changes its corporate name to Anthem -

The nation鈥檚 second-largest health insurer has changed its corporate name to Anthem from Wellpoint to reflect a label familiar to consumers shopping for coverage. The Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer sells insurance in several states under the Anthem brand, which was the company鈥檚 corporate name before it bought WellPoint Health Networks a decade ago. It sells no plans under the WellPoint name. ... Anthem Inc. is one of the biggest players on the health care overhaul鈥檚 public insurance exchanges. These exchanges are pushing insurers to sell more coverage directly to consumers instead of through employers. (12/3)

And a Virginia official argues that expanding Medicaid could help that state close a budget gap -

If Medicaid expansion began in Virginia on July 1, Virginia would take in more than $230 million in federal offsets that would alleviate 71 percent of the state鈥檚 $322 million budget gap, according to Bill Hazel, the state secretary of Health and Human Resources. (Cain, 12/3)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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