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April 2014
Health Reform Brief
President: 7.1 Million Enrolled In
Obamacare p.1
Obamacare Allies Are Already Plotting How
To Make 2015 Enrollment Better p. 1
Enrollment In NY Health Exchange Soars
p.2
No Longer An Albatross? After Obamacare,
Uninsured Rate At Lowest Level Since 2008
p.2
Co-op Health Insurance Plans See Early
Success p.2
Blue Cross Says ‘80-85’ Percent Of
Obamacare Enrollees Are Paying p.2
PPACA Legislation and
Guidance
Majority of New Medicaid Beneficiaries Live
In 10 States p.3
CMS Eliminates Proposed Medicare
Advantage Cuts For 2015 p.3
Sebelius Out, Obama Nominates New
Health Secretary p.3
NY Health Commissioner Steps Down For
CA Job p.3
President: 7.1 Million Enrolled In Obamacare
President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that 7.1 million
people had enrolled in insurance plans sold on government-run
exchanges by the close of Monday's sign-up deadline, just
beating the original estimate officials made last summer.
"This law is doing what it's supposed to do, it's working,"
Obama said in remarks outside the White House, where he was
met with sustained applause and cheers after announcing the
tally, which he repeated several times, as if to savor the number.
Source: CNBC
Obamacare Allies Are Already Plotting How To Make
2015 Enrollment Better
Today's a pretty good day for Obamacare advocates after the
news that 7 million people signed up for exchange coverage by
yesterday's deadline. But they’re already thinking about how to
improve open enrollment for 2015 health plans, which is sched-
uled to start Nov. 15.
As a reminder, the 2014 open enrollment period isn’t technically
over. The feds and state-run exchanges are making accommo-
dations for people who had trouble signing up before the
March 31 deadline.
Source: The Washington Post
Co-op Health Insurance Plans See Early
Success
The names of the big health insurance companies
are familiar – Blue Cross, Aetna, United
Healthcare. But what about CoOportunity Health,
or Health Republic Insurance of New York? These
are among 23 new health insurance companies
that started under the Affordable Care Act. They're
all nonprofit, member-owned cooperatives, and
the aim is to create more competition and drive
prices down.
Funded almost entirely by federal government
loans this year, initial enrollment numbers look
pretty good for a lot of co-ops, but that’s not nec-
essarily enough to make them successful.
Source: Kaiser Health News
Blue Cross Says ‘80-85’ Percent Of Obamac-
Are Enrollees Are Paying
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, which
represents the nation’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield
plans, says “80-85″ percent of newly enrolled indi-
viduals buying plans under the Affordable Care Act
are paying their premiums.
The figure was confirmed by Forbes this morning
and is slated to be announced later today by the
Chicago-based trade association for the nation’s
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. The results, which
confirm from a survey of most Blue Cross partici-
pating on exchanges, are as of Feb. 1.
Source: Forbes
Health Reform
Brief
Enrollment In NY Health Exchange Soars
More than 908,500 residents have fully enrolled
in New York’s health-care exchange and more
than 1.2 million residents have complet-
ed applications since Oct. 1, the state Health De-
partment said Monday.
The enrollment deadline was March 31, but resi-
dents who began the steps to apply for coverage
before March 31 and were unable to complete
the enrollment process will be allowed to apply
through April 15. In the last week alone, 43,085
residents have fully enrolled for coverage, the
health department said.
Source: Star Gazette
No Longer An Albatross? After Obamac-are, Uninsured Rate At Lowest Level Since 2008
President Barack Obama and his Democratic col-
leagues may have scored a political victory with
the new health care law. After the law's introduc-
tion, the uninsured rate has now fallen to the
lowest level since 2008.
Data released on Monday in the Gallup-
Healthways Well-Being Index showed that
roughly 3.5 million more people with health in-
surance coverage.
Source: International Business Times
Sebelius Out, Obama Nominates New Health Secretary
President Barack Obama announced Friday that he
will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who cur-
rently directs the White House budget office, to be
the next health secretary, the Cabinet official who's
ultimately responsible for overseeing Obamacare.
Obama praised the outgoing secretary, Kathleen
Sebelius, saying at a Rose Garden ceremony that
she would "go down in history" for serving when
the United States "finally declared that quality, af-
fordable health care" would be a right for every
U.S. citizen.
Her departure is not without controversy although
her tenure will conclude more positively with the
Obama administration riding high over the initial
enrollment success of the politically charged
health law.
Source: CNN
NY Health Commissioner Steps Down For CA Job
The Obama administration announced Wednesday
that it has rewritten an array of far-reaching rules
under the Affordable Care Act, the most significant
of which will let people keep bare-bones health
insurance policies for three more years.
The rule changes will touch essentially every sector
affected by the 2010 health-care law. It will buffer
more health plans in insurance exchanges from
high patient costs, give states more time to decide
whether to run their own marketplaces, and spare
certain unions from a fee they have resented.
Source: The Washington Times
Majority of New Medicaid Beneficiaries Live In 10 States
Ten states accounted for more than 80% of the
three million new enrollees in Medicaid who signed
up under the Affordable Care Act- California, Colo-
rado, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts,
New York; Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia.
Of those 10 states, four -- California, Florida, Ore-
gon and Washington -- enrolled the most new
Medicaid participants. In addition, Florida is the
only state that has not expanded its Medicaid pro-
gram under the ACA; it reported enrolling more
than 100,000 new beneficiaries.
Source: California HealthLine
CMS Eliminates Proposed Medicare Ad-vantage Cuts For 2015 On Monday, CMS announced that payments to
Medicare Advantage plans in 2015 will increase by
0.4%, reversing its earlier proposal that would have
cut the reimbursements. The proposed cuts were
unveiled in February in a 148-page assessment of
cost factors for MA plans for 2015, which noted
multiple variables moving in different directions.
Analysts estimated the variables would translate to
a 1.9% cut to MA plan payments.
Source: California Healthline
PPACA Legislation and
Guidance
Upcoming Events
About Softheon
Empowering the nation's first state health benefit exchange since 2008, Softheon's vision and strategic
direction address healthcare payer, provider, and government agencies’ goal of meeting Affordable
Care Act (ACA) milestones. Softheon provides solutions for interacting with Federal and State Health
Insurance Exchange (HIX) Marketplaces, while measurably reducing administrative costs, improving
member and provider satisfaction, as well as addressing regulatory compliance challenges in all man-
aged care administrative processes.
Softheon's Marketplace Connector Cloud (MC2) has been trusted by over 38 health plans as an acceler-
ated federal, state, and private exchange integration platform. Softheon MC2 is a Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) solution where insurers pay a one-time activation and ongoing PMPM fees for exchange mem-
bers only, while eliminating most, if not all, risks associated with ACA compliance of 2014 enrollment
and other mandates.
To find out more about the Softheon, visit www.softheon.com.