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Overutilization Of Prescription Drugs

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[…] Half of all Americans take at least one prescription drug. Prescription costs have skyrocketed over the past couple decades. When we got into this industry ten years ago, we saw lots of individual health insurance policies that offered prescriptions with simple copays based on whether the drug was generic or brand name. These days, nearly all of the carriers in Colorado have separate prescription deductibles (our family’s Anthem policy has a separate $2000 deductible for prescriptions), or ever-increasing prescription copays. And a lot of carriers have added a fourth tier to their prescription categories – drugs in that tier are generally quite pricey and patients generally have to pay a percentage of the cost rather than a flat copay.

We owe it to ourselves to seriously consider whether our over-reliance on prescriptions is actually beneficial in the long run, both from a health perspective and a financial one.

The Ineffectiveness Of Asset Testing For Public Health Insurance Eligibility

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Every once in a while, we see a story about someone taking tremendous advantage of public assistance programs. And those stories tend to stick with us. They get repeated and passed along and before we know it, there starts to be a pervasive feeling that such incidents are much more common that they actually are.

In an ironic twist, Colorado Republican lawmakers are calling for the state to return to a system of asset testing for Medicaid recipients… right on the heels of Colorado receiving a $26 million grant from the federal government because of the state’s efforts to expand access to Medicaid and CHIP. Colorado received the grant money last week after increasing Medicaid/CHIP enrollment significantly over the past year. In order to qualify for the grant, the state had to implement at least five of the provisions that are known to improve access to public health insurance for children, and one of those provisions is the “liberalization of asset requirements”. […]

Colorado Gets $26.1 Million Award For Insuring More Children

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For the second year in a row, Colorado has received a significant grant from the federal government (funded under the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act) to help fund the state’s Medicaid system. A year ago, Colorado received $13.7 million. Last week, Colorado got $26.1 million – the third highest amount awarded to any of the states that qualified for the performance bonuses this time around. Colorado was one of the states with an enrollment increase of more than 10%, which qualified for a higher “Tier 2” bonus award. The program awarded a total of over $296 million at the end of 2011, and it was spread across 23 states, as opposed to only 15 that qualified a year earlier.

In order to qualify for a bonus, a state has to implement at least five of the eight provisions that have been proven to increase enrollment and retention numbers for Medicaid and CHIP, and the state has to also prove that they have had a significant increase in the number of children enrolled in Medicaid during the year.
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Prescreen Simplifies CoverColorado Eligibility Process

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[…] If the health insurance carrier issues a denial letter based on the prescreen, that denial letter can be used as proof of eligibility for CoverColorado. The applicant can then proceed with an application for CoverColorado and include the denial letter.

The prescreen is intended to replace the need for an applicant (with one or more of those 21 medical conditions) to submit a complete application to a private carrier in order to receive a letter of decline and thus be eligible for CoverColorado. The prescreen is definitely shorter and easier to complete than a full application.

It should be noted however that all 21 of the medical conditions listed on the prescreen questionnaire are also included on the list of medical conditions that automatically make an applicant eligible for CoverColorado. This list of conditions has long been an option for CoverColorado eligibility, and it is more comprehensive than the new prescreen list (it includes the 21 conditions on the prescreen as well as 13 others). […]

Interesting Reading In The HHS Bulletin On Essential Health Benefits

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[…] I particularly appreciated Jaan’s link to this bulletin about Essential Health Benefits from the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. It’s a comprehensive look at how EHB will be defined based on the current proposal from HHS, and it includes a call for public comment between now and the end of January 2012. In reading through the bulletin, I was especially interested in the bottom of page 7. They note that in states that mandate coverage for in-vitro fertilization, the mandate increases average health insurance premiums by about one percent. And in states that mandate coverage for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for autism, that mandate results in average premiums being 0.3% higher than they would be without it.

We’ve written a few times about infertility treatments and health insurance, and it’s always generated a lot of (usually quite polarized) comments. People tend to feel strongly one way or the other, often based on their own experiences or those of friends and family members. People who have had to fork over tens of thousands of dollars to pay for IVF tend to be more sympathetic to the idea that health insurance coverage of fertility treatments would be a good thing. Those who have been able to conceive without medical interventions and those who have no desire to have children tend to balk at the idea of paying higher health insurance premiums to cover fertility treatments for other people. But would knowing that mandates on fertility treatment have only increased premiums by about one percent make a difference in how those people feel? […]

Kaiser Permanente Pays Colorado Adults To Lose Weight And Keep It Off

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Since last April, Kaiser Permanente has been offering cash to Colorado adults who lose weight and keep it off through their Weigh and Win program. Researchers have long known that cash is a powerful incentive, and the Kaiser program utilizes that motivation factor to encourage people to lose weight and establish a healthier lifestyle. Participants are eligible to receive quarterly checks for up to nine consecutive months after their second weigh-in at one of the Weigh and Win kiosks, as long as they continue to lose weight or keep off the weight they lost between their first and second weigh-ins.

The program is available to Colorado adults age 18 and up who have an initial BMI of at least 25. Those with a BMI of less than 25 are eligible to win prizes by completing weekly journals, weighing-in at the kiosks quarterly, and reading emails from the Weigh and Win program, but the cash rewards are only available based on weight loss for participants who start with a BMI of at least 25. […]

Record High Number Of Colorado Residents Enrolled In Medicaid

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This short clip from Colorado Public News is well worth watching. It’s only a few minutes long but highlights the need for Medicaid among families who rely on the program, the controversy surrounding the expansion of Medicaid, and the impact that the recession has had on Medicaid enrollment in Colorado over the past few years.

The video notes that Colorado has experienced a 55% increase in Medicaid enrollment since 2007. This is likely due in large part to the recession, but Colorado has also taken active steps to expand access to public health insurance programs like Medicaid in recent years, and it’s reasonable to assume that this is driving some of the increase in enrollment. […]

Division of Insurance Website Receives Praise From HHS

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A few months ago, I wrote about the new website that the Colorado Division of Insurance has created to improve transparency in the health insurance market. I particularly liked the features of the site that allow consumers to see how the rate filing process works and track a health insurance carrier’s rate increase history. Colorado used money from a $1 million grant from HHS last year (a provision of the PPACA) to create the website, and it’s obvious that the Division of Insurance is taking the goal of transparency seriously.

I’m a bit late to this party, but I just read a news release from the Division of Insurance from back in September noting that the HHS Regional Director, Marguerite Salazar, commended the Colorado Division of Insurance for the website, calling it a “shining example of consumer-friendly and transparent information…” […]

When Advertising Masquerades As Journalism

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[…] The days of news being disseminated once per day via newspapers and a few times a day via morning and evening TV and radio news programs are long gone. News is updated constantly now, and people expect to see brand-new stories every time they go online. There are fewer trained journalists ready to carefully research and write the news stories, and plenty of bloggers and freelance writers who are more than willing to write articles for anyone who will pay them to do so. And not all of those articles disclose the fact that the writer may have been paid for the story by a party that has a vested interest in the story getting out.

On the other hand, medical research is a hot topic. New research is constantly being conducted and not all of it is biased or funded by companies with a conflict of interest. We just have to be careful when we read medical “news”. Check the sources. If the story is about a study, look to see who funded the study. If the story openly promotes a particular product (or hospital, or health insurance policy, or a specific cutting-edge treatment, etc.), it’s wise to question whether the story is actually unbiased, researched medical journalism, or advertising pretending to be news. […]

HHS Allowing States To Define Essential Benefits In The Exchanges

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[…] Colorado already has a comprehensive small group benefits mandate. Until this year, one of the most glaring differences between small group and individual plans was that individual policies in Colorado were not required to cover maternity. But that changed in January when all new and renewing individual policies had to begin covering maternity. I would say that the primary difference now between most of the individual plans and small group plans in Colorado is that the small group policies are guaranteed issue, whereas the individual plans are medically underwritten. But in 2014, when the exchanges get underway, the individual policies will be guaranteed issue too. Individual policies are still quite a bit less expensive than group policies in Colorado, but I wonder if that will change too once the exchanges get underway? It would seem so, since the benefits and underwriting will be virtually identical.

The small group market in Colorado is already quite structured by state mandates. The individual market also has quite a few mandates, including the new maternity benefit mandate. But it appears that the individual policies that are sold in the exchanges beginning in 2014 will have benefits at least as comprehensive as the benefits offered by the largest small group plans in Colorado. That means that “bottom of the heap” individual plans (ie, the ones with tons of fine print and huge holes in their coverage) probably won’t be making an appearance in the exchange, or at least not without a serious overhaul. […]

Colorado Child-Only Open Enrollment Details For January 2012

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The next open enrollment for child-only policies is almost here, so I thought it might be helpful to provide some specific details in terms of what policies are available and what parents should expect when submitting child-only applications next month.

The first open enrollment window in 2012 will be the month of January. Applications for child-only policies have to be submitted between January 1 and January 31. Application not submitted by the end of January will have to wait and re-submit in July, which is the second open-enrollment period of the year. For most carriers, each child in a family will have to have a separate application.

All eligible child-only applications submitted during the open enrollment period are guaranteed issue, so the child cannot be refused coverage. However, the applications are still medically underwritten and the rate can be increased by up to 200% based on the child’s medical history (so if the standard price is $100, the policy could actually be assigned a rate of $300, which is equal to a 200% rate increase).

Colorado Senate Bill 128 requires all Colorado health insurance carriers that offer coverage for adults to also offer child-only plans during the two annual open enrollment windows. But the bill does not require carriers to provide guaranteed issue coverage for children who are eligible for health insurance from another source (other than a high risk pool like CoverColorado or GettingUSCovered – see the bottom of page 4).

Most Colorado carriers have selected one or two plan designs that will be available for child-only applications next month. To give you an idea of what is available in Colorado for child-only coverage, we’re providing information here regarding child-only options from six of the top individual health insurance carriers in the state. […]

Access To A Mini-Med Group Plan Does Not Prevent CoverColorado Enrollment

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[…] The person I spoke with at CoverColorado checked with a supervisor and then told me that mini-meds are an exception to CoverColorado’s rule banning eligibility for people who have access to group health insurance. In order to qualify, the applicant has to provide the usual proof of eligibility along with proof that their employer’s group health plan is a mini-med. This can be the declarations page from the policy or marketing materials for the plan (which now have to include language indicating that the plan has been granted a waiver by HHS and does not meet the minimum benefit requirements defined by the PPACA).

Hopefully this will clarify things for others in a similar situation. Normally, access to a group health insurance policy (even if it’s one you don’t like or your doctor isn’t on the network, etc.) makes a person ineligible for CoverColorado. But if that group plan happens to be a mini-med and you also meet the other eligibility criteria for CoverColorado, you can submit an application to CoverColorado.

Kaiser Permanente Announces Plans to Add Coverage in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley

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Yesterday, Kaiser Permanente filed for approval with the Colorado Division of Insurance to offer health care coverage in Northern Colorado beginning in late 2012. This expansion will include new Kaiser Permanente medical offices in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley, a contracted network of community providers and an exclusive hospital agreement with Banner Health hospitals and physicians. Technically, people in Loveland zip codes can already get coverage with Kaiser, but the closest facilities are in Longmont.

We don’t know yet if this expansion will include coverage for employer group as well as individual/family plans. For example, Kaiser has coverage in Colorado Springs, but only for employer groups. Individual/family coverage for Kaiser is limited to the south Denver metro area up through […]

Health Wonk Review And A Thoughtful Look At Life Expectancy

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[…] Lastly, Roy’s article points out that there isn’t just one “US healthcare system”. Rather, we have Medicare, Medicaid, private health insurance, and millions of people with no health insurance at all. Lumping everyone into one group when it comes to life expectancy doesn’t really tell us how our health insurance funded-healthcare systems are functioning, since there are so many people with sub-par health insurance or no insurance at all. It stands to reason that if we can get everyone covered by health insurance and secure realistic access to healthcare for the whole population, our life expectancy should increase. But that might be simply because of an increased life expectancy for the portion of the population that is currently under-insured or uninsured. It could be that the population that is currently covered by high quality health insurance would continue to have the same life expectancy, which is likely quite a bit higher than the population that is under-insured or uninsured.

Grand Rounds And A Defense Of Tiered Health Insurance Plans

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[…] Tiered health insurance plans seem sort of like HSA qualified high deductible plans, but with the added flexibility of being able to have a lower deductible if you’re willing to choose from a more limited network of providers. With a high deductible policy, you’re going to be paying a significant amount out of pocket if you have a major claim, regardless of where you go for treatment. You’ll usually pay even more if you go to an out-of-network provider, but even if you stay in-network, the deductibles on HSA-qualified plans are pretty steep. A tiered health insurance policy can be viewed as a high deductible policy if you opt for the high cost tier providers, or a low deductible/copay plan if you’re able to be flexible in terms of where you go for care. Yes, this might mean switching to a new PCP or opting for a clinic or hospital that isn’t quite as convenient. But as David points out, these plans usually have significantly lower premiums, and for some people, that will be a very worthwhile trade off.

Colorado Rises To 9th Place In America’s Health Rankings

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[…] With regards to health insurance coverage, the America’s Health Rankings survey gave Colorado props for decreasing the percentage of the population without health insurance over the past year, from 15.6% to 13.8%. However, the Colorado Health Access survey results that were released in November indicated the exact opposite results: that study determined that the uninsured rate in Colorado had increased over the past two year from 14% of the population to 16% now. We know that Colorado has been taking steps to expand access to public health insurance programs like Medicaid and CHP+, and we also know that plenty of Colorado residents have lost their health insurance as a result of the economic problems that have plagued the whole country over the past few years. But it’s unclear from the results of these two surveys whether the state is improving or losing ground in terms of health insurance coverage.

CoverColorado Assessment For 2012

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[…] As the cost of healthcare continues to rise, CoverColorado – just like every other insurer – needs more and more money to cover the cost of claims. Their website shows the fees that have been assessed over the past few years, and the increased fee that will go into effect next month for 2012.

Because the CoverColorado assessment is collected by health insurance carriers and passed on to CoverColorado, the fee is added to each policy’s premium every month. The end result is that we all pay a few dollars more per month than the actual cost of our policy. This can be confusing, especially if people are new to individual health insurance and haven’t had experience with paying their own health insurance premiums in the past. The amount that is going to be drafted from your bank account or billed to you will be a few dollars higher than your stated premiums because it includes the CoverColorado assessment. […]

Will Large Groups Encourage Sick Employees To Seek Coverage In The Exchanges?

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[…] Amy Monahan suggested that there could be a law making employees ineligible for coverage in the exchanges if they are eligible for employer group coverage. Or there’s the possibility of a law similar to the one that Colorado designed to protect the state’s high risk pool from a similar scenario – employers here can’t reimburse employees for individual health insurance premiums if they have had a group plan in place within the past twelve months (in the case of the exchanges, they could make employees ineligible for coverage in the exchanges for at least a year after leaving a group plan, assuming they are still eligible for coverage under the group plan and have just opted out). Either option would help to protect the exchanges, but they don’t do much to prevent employers from structuring their health insurance policies to make healthcare significantly more expensive for the sickest employees. […]
A lot of this remains to be seen. The health care reform law still has to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, and we have a major election cycle next year and another full legislative year after that. But if everything about the PPACA remains as it is now, lawmakers will eventually have to address the possibility of self-insured employers designing health insurance plans that encourage their sickest employees to opt for coverage in the exchanges instead.

Consumer-Driven Healthcare Debate

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[…]prior to reading Ungar’s article I wasn’t aware of the agreement between the Independent Physicians Association and Rocky Mountain Health Plans with regard to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. The doctors in the IPA were so determined to treat every patient equally that they worked out an arrangement with RMHP to have the insurance carrier accept payment directly from Medicare and Medicaid and then pool that money together with premiums collected from RMHP insureds.
[…] Hixon argues that patients with more financial responsibility for their own care do indeed make better decisions regarding efficient use of healthcare dollars. Furthermore, he cites a study that found that patients with high deductible health insurance policies (eg, HSA qualified plans) had more preventive care, lower rates of hospitalization, and were more compliant in terms of following their doctors’ recommendations. They were also more likely to question their medical bills and had overall lower medical costs than people with traditional low-deductible policies.

[…] In addition to probably being above average in terms of financial savvy, I would assume that the demographic that opts for high deductible health insurance is also probably healthier than average. It makes sense that the more health problems a person has, the more likely he’ll be to choose a lower-deductible policy, since he knows he’s likely to be using the policy at least somewhat regularly. On the other hand, a person with no health conditions at all is probably making a good gamble to select a high deductible policy, since there’s a decent chance he’ll be able to go for several years without having a major claim. So the fact that people with HDHPs have lower medical costs isn’t really surprising. It’s largely a self-selected group (employers who offer an HDHP usually offer another plan as well, and everyone shopping for individual health insurance who picks an HDHP has other options from which to choose). I’m not sure that medical costs would still be lower for people with HDHPs if they policy designs were assigned randomly across the entire population.

Access To Healthcare In Colorado Worsening

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The Colorado Health Access Survey results were released earlier this month, and the results aren’t particularly surprising given the state of the economy for the past few years. The total number of uninsured Colorado residents is now 829,000 – up from 678,000 in 2009. The survey also counts the number of “underinsured” residents (those who aren’t able to afford their out-of-pocket expenses that total more than 10% of their income, or 5% for those below the poverty line). The two categories – uninsured and underinsured – amount to 1.5 million people, which is about a third of the Colorado population.

The 22% increase in the number of uninsured residents came despite strong efforts in Colorado to expand access to Medicaid and CHP+ over the past few years. Without the expansion of those programs, the numbers would undoubtedly be even more bleak. […]

Employer Funding Of Individual Health Insurance Varies By State

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Over the past several months, I’ve written a few articles about the legality of employer reimbursement of individual health insurance premiums in Colorado. Our friend and fellow blogger Hank Stern (writing at InsureBlog) found the changes interesting, and noted that the laws surrounding employer reimbursement of premiums vary quite a bit from one state to another (he’s in OH).

Hank and I wrote a joint post about the topic, which he published last week on InsureBlog. Here’s Hank’s description of how the law works in OH (regular readers will note that it’s similar to how things used to be here in Colorado, before HRAs became a major issue, and of course before SB19 passed earlier this year). […]

Photo Session for the Colorado Health Foundation

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IMG_3109 A few weeks ago, the Colorado Health Foundation interviewed Jay for an article in an upcoming edition of their magazine due to come out in January. Yesterday, photojournalist Barry Staver came up to Wellington from Denver to take pictures of us to accompany the article. We were honored to be photographed by him, and impressed with his unassuming, friendly personality. And we were thrilled when he offered to take pictures of our family with our little pocket camera so that we could have our own copies. (with a baby and a three-year-old, we have to make the most of moments when everybody is clean at the same time!) So here we are, in front of our backyard office, in a family photo taken by Barry Staver […]

Combining Patient Satisfaction With Clinical Outcomes And Cost Efficiency

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[…] Particularly in the current era of spiraling healthcare costs, it’s a bit troubling to hear that hospitals are doing things like putting in extra elevators so that people don’t have to wait as long for an elevator… all for the sake of boosting their patient satisfaction rankings. Yes, it might increase patient satisfaction by a small margin, but somebody has to pay for it. Renovation projects like that add to the hospital’s overhead expenses, and that leads to increased charges for care at the hospital. Ultimately, health insurance carriers end up paying more for their insureds’ claims, and that translates directly to increased health insurance premiums […]

Cholesterol Testing For Kids, With An Extra Serving Of Fries

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[…] Congress released a spending bill this week that would do away with the steps the government has made recently to improve the nutritional content of school lunches. The winners? The potato industry and the makers of frozen pizzas. The losers? Children all across the country and the future of our already over-burdened healthcare system.

I find it a bit ironic that the spending bill was released almost simultaneously with the recommendation that we begin screening all children for elevated cholesterol levels starting between the ages of 9 and 11.

Instead of asking the frozen food makers, who supply our schools’ cafeterias, to come up with a pizza that has whole wheat crust and a few more veggies on top, Congress would rather define the tiny amount of tomato paste on the current slices as a serving of vegetables. And instead of limiting starchy vegetables (including the french fries that are served almost daily in many schools), the new bill would allow fried spuds to continue to be served without limitations.

Cleaner Hospitals Spread Fewer Infections

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[…] What is shocking is the fact that hospitals aren’t already at the top of the cleanliness scale. Although we’ve known for more than a century that germs cause disease, there is still a surprising lack of compliance with basic hygiene in the medical profession – even something as simple as hand washing between patients. Jessica’s post describes a study at the Mayo Clinic that involved cleaning high-touch surfaces with bleach wipes twice a day for six months. Their incidence of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) went from one case every few days to one case every three months. Pretty impressive results, and a very easy solution. Sterilizing high-touch surfaces in hospitals should be a matter of routine, but obviously that isn’t yet the case. Maybe the Mayo Clinic study will help to get other hospitals on board in order to reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infections across the country.