Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
BeneStream Offers Employers Help Shifting Workers To Medicaid Coverage
Marketplace: Shifting Health Costs From Companies To Taxpayers
Starting this month, firms with more than 50 employees must offer workers insurance or face fines, a new expense for some employers who until now didn’t have to offer any coverage. But one company’s problem is another company’s opportunity — BeneStream wants to help employers shift those costs to the federal government, specifically to Medicaid. ... For a price, BeneStream will comb through employee rolls to see who qualifies for Medicaid, the program created primarily for low-income and disabled Americans. (Gorenstein, 1/13)
Earlier KHN coverage: Turning To Medicaid To Insure Lowest-Paid Employees (Mogul, 1/7)
CQ Healthbeat: Many Marketplace Plan Dropouts Enroll In Other Coverage, Say Officials
The majority of people who leave the health law’s insurance marketplaces in California and on a broader national level are picking up other coverage rather than going uninsured, according to officials on a conference call hosted by the organization Families USA, which supports the 2010 overhaul. Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, said California’s state-run exchange has surveyed a pool of people who left that marketplace over time and more than 85 percent left for other health coverage. (Attias, 1/13)
Earlier KHN coverage: Most Who Leave California Exchange Get Other Insurance Coverage (Gorman, 10/9/15)
Fox News: Humana Latest Insurer To Have Big Problems Under Obamacare
Humana Inc. has added its name to the list of mega-medical insurers to report big problems under Obamacare. The Louisville, Ky.- based company does not expect to make enough money this year in premiums from individual plans to cover what it will pay out in claims, according to a regulatory filing made last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (1/13)
