Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has filed suit to challenge a new federal requirement that specifies when children can be removed from the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program.
...At issue is a Biden administration rule that took effect Jan. 1 requiring states to provide 12 months of continuous eligibility for enrollees ages 18 and younger under Medicaid and CHIP, even if monthly premiums are not paid.
Florida state law gives private corporations wide berth as to what sort of information, which is easily available in some other states, they get to hide from the public under the guise of it being a "trade secret."
In the case of health insurance premium rate filing data, that even extends to basic information like "how many customers they have."
A ‘Nixon goes to China’ moment? Conservative Republican pushes for state Medicaid expansion.
'These are not handouts. We’re not throwing money down the drain. We are helping our working class Americans get ahead.'
A conservative Florida Republican doctor who has been an ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis and his handling of COVID-19 says it’s time for the state to expand Medicaid despite the long-running opposition of GOP legislators.
...[Rep. Joel] Rudman said the loss of Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands of Floridians this year illustrates the need for change. A spreadsheet compiled by House Democrats shows of the 524,076 Floridians who have lost coverage in the last four months, nearly 50% are under the age of 21.
During the COVID pandemic emergency, Congress passed legislation which, among other things, required states to provide "continuous coverage" of people who enrolled in Medicaid or the CHIP program.
Normally Medicaid/CHIP enrollees have their eligibility statuses "redetermined" every month (or quarter in some states, I believe) to make sure they were still eligible for the program, but the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) stated that in order to receive increased federal funding of their Medicaid/CHIP programs, states couldn't kick anyone off as long as the public health emergency was in place (unless they died, moved out of state or asked to be disenrolled).
This requirement ended effective April 1st, 2023 via an omnibus bill passed back in December.
A week and a half ago, on a Saturday Night, my friend Jenny Chumbley Hogue, a Texas-based health insurance broker, gave me a heads up about a rather concerning and suspiciously-timed notice regarding Oscar Health of Florida:
Hello agent, please view the below information in reference to Oscar. We have received this information from Oscar and are passing it along to you.
Beginning at midnight Monday, 12/12/2022, (00:00 am Tuesday morning), Oscar in Florida will cease all new sales for IFP. All previously enrolled members and auto-enrolled members can keep their current plan by paying for January coverage. If members need to make a plan change, they need to do so by this time, midnight Monday.
...With this announcement, in addition to the previously announced market exits, Bright HealthCare will not offer Individual and Family health plans in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee after 2022(1), or Medicare Advantage plans outside of California and Florida. This focused footprint reduces Bright Health’s overall regulated capital need and is expected to release excess regulated capital of approximately $250 million upon settlement of all medical liabilities and approval from state regulators.
Florida state law gives private corporations wide berth as to what sort of information, which is easily available in some other states, they get to hide from the public under the guise of it being a "trade secret."
In the case of health insurance premium rate filing data, that even extends to basic information like "how many customers they have."
MICHIGAN: Another One (Mostly) Bites The Dust; 12th CO-OP Drops Off Exchange, May Go Belly-Up
It appears that East Lansing-based Consumers Mutual Insurance of Michigan could wind down operations this year as it is not participating in the state health insurance exchange for 2016.
But officials of Consumers Mutual today are discussing several options that could determine its future status with the state Department of Insurance and Financial Services, said David Eich, marketing and public relations officer with Consumers Mutual.
Consumers Mutual CEO Dennis Litos said: "We are reviewing our situation (financial condition) with DIFS and should conclude on a future direction this week.”
While Eich said he could not disclose the options, he said one is “winding down” the company, which has 28,000 members, including about 6,000 on the exchange.
The FDA’s independent vaccine advisers voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend the agency authorize two Covid-19 vaccines for babies, toddlers and preschool-age children, putting the country’s youngest age group one step closer to immunizations nearly two-and-a-half years into the pandemic.
Florida is the only state in the union that did not preorder COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 4 and under, according to a report from the Miami Herald.
The nation’s third-largest state missed Tuesday’s deadline to preorder the doses from the federal government, which the Herald reports could delay delivery to Florida’s pediatricians, clinics, pharmacies and pediatric hospitals.
