From Health Plan Weekly
A coalition of 17 Democratic state
attorneys general, led by the AGs in New York and Massachusetts, expressed
their concerns about the Dept. of Labor's draft rule to expand the use of
so-called Association Health Plans (AHPs) in a 22-page comment.
The AGs said AHPs "have a long and notorious history of fraud, mismanagement, and deception....The Proposed Rule would reverse many of [the] critical consumer protections and unduly expand access to AHPs without sufficient justification or consideration of the consequences."
During the public comment period on the AHP proposal, federal regulators received 898 comments.
America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) said it worried that the rule would disturb health insurance markets nationwide. It wrote, "[w]e support the goal of expanding access and increasing competition and choice in health insurance, as well as working towards lower cost options for all Americans. However, we believe that Association Health Plans (AHPs) as envisioned by the NPRM [i.e., the notice of proposed rule making] are the wrong way to achieve these goals due to the risks of fraud and insolvency they pose to consumers."
Meanwhile, GOP Reps. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Tim Walberg of Michigan, chair of the panel's Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, voiced their support of AHPs. They described small businesses as being "in desperate need of affordable health care options," and consider AHPs a "strong, workable, and bipartisan model."
Public comments on CMS's Advance Notice for Calendar Year 2019 for Medicare Advantage and Part D and the CY 2019 draft Call Letter were due by March 5. Both AHIP and AARP cited concerns on several technical issues, such as the calculation of risk scores.
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