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With a law finally passed that extends
enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for another three years, health insurers and government
agencies can now start their consumer-outreach campaigns for the upcoming
open enrollment period in earnest. But they’ll also be prepping for a bigger
challenge down the road: Ensuring a smooth transition for people who will no
longer be covered by Medicaid after the COVID-19 public health emergency
(PHE) ends.
Biden’s HHS takes
action
- The Biden
administration on Aug. 30 rolled out a plan called the “Assister
Strategy to Support Medicaid Unwinding.” As part of that plan, HHS said
it’s allocating
$100 million to Navigator grantee organizations for the 2022-2023
budget period as well as reviving the Enrollment Assistance Program,
through which the Biden administration will deploy “mobile assisters”
across population centers identified by HHS.
- “My sense is
that the Biden administration is very concerned about what will happen
to people when the continuous coverage requirement in Medicaid ends with
the end of the PHE. I think they’re concerned about people becoming
uninsured or having big gaps in their coverage,” says Sabrina Corlette,
the founder and co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health
Insurance Reforms.
- While the PHE
is currently set to expire in October after multiple extensions, it’s
likely to be extended at least once more, meaning the Medicaid
redetermination process will restart no earlier than January 2023.
Insurers will lose
Medicaid membership
- The Medicaid
unwinding process represents a business risk for health insurers that
have benefited from artificially
high Medicaid enrollment. Therefore, carriers have a strong
incentive to work alongside states and the federal government to steer
people who no longer qualify for Medicaid into alternative coverage like
ACA marketplace plans.
- Bill Tuthill,
vice president of market strategy and federal markets for Highmark Inc.,
says the Blues affiliate is focusing its efforts on making sure
consumers know everything they need to about their ACA exchange coverage
options.
- “With [the]
ACA, it starts and ends with awareness,” he tells AIS Health. “So you
think about the people coming off of Medicaid — it might be confusing to
go from Medicaid managed care into the marketplace,” Tuthill says. “I
think the opportunity is, how can states and carriers and nonprofits
collectively ensure that this population understands their options
during the transition period?”
- To spread its
message to consumers, Tuthill says Highmark uses a multichannel approach
that involves direct and shared mail, email and quite a few digital ads.
“This population is very digitally savvy — spends a good amount of time
on their computer or their phone, and when they are starting to think
about this coverage decision, a lot of them at least start that
exploration process online,” he says.
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