Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
IRS Relaxes Normally Strict Rules To Allow Workers To Make Changes To Health Insurance Plans
The New York Times: Employers Can Let Workers Change Health Plans Without Waiting
The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday made it easier for employers to allow workers to make adjustments to their health insurance plans and flexible spending accounts in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Normally, strict rules prevent employees from changing health insurance plans in the middle of a year. But the I.R.S. is giving employers a way to let workers make changes without waiting for the usual enrollment period. (Sanger-Katz and Lieber, 5/12)
San Francisco Chronicle: IRS Says Employers Can Allow Mid-Year Changes To Employee Health Plans, Flex Accounts
The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday gave employers permission to let employees make mid-year changes to their group health insurance coverage and to their flexible spending accounts for health care and dependent care for 2020. Employer groups have been lobbying the IRS and Congress to allow more flexibility in these plans because the coronavirus has vastly changed people’s need for, and access to, health care and child care. The new guidance includes only some of the changes the groups recommended. (Pender, 5/12)
Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealthcare Plans Bigger Presence On Obamacare Exchanges
UnitedHealthcare plans to expand its footprint on the Affordable Care Act exchanges next year after exiting the marketplace in all but a handful of states in 2017. The insurer filed an application to sell individual plans in Maryland in 2021, Governor Larry Hogan said Tuesday. Its entrance would inject more competition into the state's ACA marketplace, where two insurers are selling plans. (Livingston, 5/12)
Modern Healthcare: Most Newly Uninsured Are Eligible For Subsidized ACA Coverage, Analysis Finds
As job losses mount amid the COVID-19 crisis, so will health insurance losses. A new analysis estimates that based on job losses between March and May, nearly 27 million people may have lost employer-based health coverage and become uninsured. Most of those people would be eligible for Medicaid or an Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidy, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation analysis published Wednesday. However, about 5.7 million people likely wouldn't qualify for subsidized insurance and would have to pay the full cost of an individual insurance plan, which may be unaffordable. (Livingston, 5/13)
Modern Healthcare: COBRA Subsidies Sought For Furloughed Workers
Hospital lobbyists are banding with insurers and employer groups to ask Congress to hike subsidies for coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act—commonly known as COBRA—for employees who have recently lost their healthcare coverage. Having more people retain private health insurance coverage is good for hospitals' payer mix. But the COVID-19 pandemic could make the subsidies even more impactful for hospitals as they are in the unusual position of having to furlough or lay off their employees. (Cohrs, 5/12)
State House News Service: Baker Filing $1 Billion Bill To Cover State's COVID-19 Spending
Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday he plans to file a supplemental budget to cover $1 billion in state spending related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The expenses include payments for personal protective equipment, rate adjustments for human service providers, incentive pay for state employees on the front lines at certain facilities, costs of temporary field hospitals and shelters, National Guard pay, costs associated with the state's contract tracing program, emergency child care for essential workers, and increased costs of local housing authorities and of the family and individual shelter system. (Young, 5/12)
Bangor Daily News: Coronavirus Testing Costs Will Be Covered For Uninsured Mainers
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has already required all private insurers to cover testing costs, which includes doctor visits and copays, as well as requiring coverage through MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid. Many private insurers had moved to do so beforehand and Community Health Options in Lewiston — the state’s only health co-op that provides plans under the Affordable Care Act — is also covering testing. (Andrews, 5/12)
