Health News
- Most Insured Through Kynect Will Pay More In 2016; Kentucky Health Cooperative Seeks 25 Percent Increase
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News The federal health law requires that insurers planning to significantly increase premiums for policies on a health-insurance exchange to submit their rates by June 1 for review. Many insurance carriers across the...
- Second Round Of Private Insurance Enrollment Under Obamacare Starts Nov. 15; Rates Estimated To Rise An Average Of 4.6%
Enrollment reopens Saturday, Nov. 15, for health insurance under the federal health-reform law and the state insurance exchange, known as Kynect. In the second year of what is typically called Obamacare, there will be new insurers, new rates, a shorter...
- At Least One Additional Health-insurance Company Is Expected To Sell Policies On Kynect Exchange Next Year
The five insurance companies that sold policies this year on Kynect, Kentucky's health-benefit exchange, want to return in 2015, and Dayton, Ohio-based CareSource wants to join as well. Officials said they believe other insurers will sign up...
- Kentucky And Most Other States Continue To Delay Action On Health-insurance Exchanges, Despite Jan. 1, 2013 Deadline
Though states must be able to prove whether or not they're ready to run a state insurance exchange by Jan. 1, 2013, many, including Kentucky, have not made any moves toward setting one up. Kentucky officials have said they are waiting for more guidance...
- Making The Grade: A Scorecard For State Health Insurance Exchanges
According to the Illinois Department of Insurance, health insurance premiums have risen on average 181 percent since 2005. This could be the week action is taken in Illinois to fix our health insurance marketplace for Illinois families and small businesses....
Health News
Anthem says Kynect has delivered inaccurate enrollment forms, but is nevertheless a model for insurance exchanges
Some health-insurance companies say Kentucky's Kynect exchange for acquiring coverage is giving them inaccurate or incomplete enrollment forms, and that is also a problem in other state-operated exchanges, Kyle Cheney and Jason Millman reported for Politico Dec. 4.
"It?s a new twist in the unfolding saga of so-called 834 forms ? industry jargon for the application files that insurers receive when someone signs up for coverage through an exchange," the reporters write. "Insurers in Kentucky and New York, for example, say they?ve received flawed 834 enrollment forms from their local exchanges, though the extent of the errors is unclear. Washington state has already had to correct thousands of 834s with faulty information about federal tax credits. . . . It?s uncertain how deep the problems go, in part, because the states themselves aren?t sure ? and are reluctant to divulge much about their technical challenges."
As for Kentucky specifically, "Although a Kynect spokeswoman said the exchange has dealt with only 'minor issues' since it started sending enrollment files to insurers a month ago, she didn?t indicate whether those issues had resulted in flawed forms or if they?d been resolved."
Tony Felts, a Kentucky spokesman for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, told Politico that it's too early to say if the problems have been solved: ?In general, the situation is the same for the state-run exchanges as it is for the federally facilitated exchanges. As far as the quality of the data that?s coming in, I can?t say that everything has been completely accurate.? Still, he told Kentucky Health News Dec. 9, "There is no question that Kentucky's exchange is performing substantially better and is a model for how the exchanges could be running."
Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America?s Health Insurance Plans, a lobbying group, told Politico, ?While there is significant variation from state to state, health plans in many state-based exchanges are seeing similar problems with enrollment files.? (Read more)
"It?s a new twist in the unfolding saga of so-called 834 forms ? industry jargon for the application files that insurers receive when someone signs up for coverage through an exchange," the reporters write. "Insurers in Kentucky and New York, for example, say they?ve received flawed 834 enrollment forms from their local exchanges, though the extent of the errors is unclear. Washington state has already had to correct thousands of 834s with faulty information about federal tax credits. . . . It?s uncertain how deep the problems go, in part, because the states themselves aren?t sure ? and are reluctant to divulge much about their technical challenges."
As for Kentucky specifically, "Although a Kynect spokeswoman said the exchange has dealt with only 'minor issues' since it started sending enrollment files to insurers a month ago, she didn?t indicate whether those issues had resulted in flawed forms or if they?d been resolved."
Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America?s Health Insurance Plans, a lobbying group, told Politico, ?While there is significant variation from state to state, health plans in many state-based exchanges are seeing similar problems with enrollment files.? (Read more)
- Most Insured Through Kynect Will Pay More In 2016; Kentucky Health Cooperative Seeks 25 Percent Increase
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News The federal health law requires that insurers planning to significantly increase premiums for policies on a health-insurance exchange to submit their rates by June 1 for review. Many insurance carriers across the...
- Second Round Of Private Insurance Enrollment Under Obamacare Starts Nov. 15; Rates Estimated To Rise An Average Of 4.6%
Enrollment reopens Saturday, Nov. 15, for health insurance under the federal health-reform law and the state insurance exchange, known as Kynect. In the second year of what is typically called Obamacare, there will be new insurers, new rates, a shorter...
- At Least One Additional Health-insurance Company Is Expected To Sell Policies On Kynect Exchange Next Year
The five insurance companies that sold policies this year on Kynect, Kentucky's health-benefit exchange, want to return in 2015, and Dayton, Ohio-based CareSource wants to join as well. Officials said they believe other insurers will sign up...
- Kentucky And Most Other States Continue To Delay Action On Health-insurance Exchanges, Despite Jan. 1, 2013 Deadline
Though states must be able to prove whether or not they're ready to run a state insurance exchange by Jan. 1, 2013, many, including Kentucky, have not made any moves toward setting one up. Kentucky officials have said they are waiting for more guidance...
- Making The Grade: A Scorecard For State Health Insurance Exchanges
According to the Illinois Department of Insurance, health insurance premiums have risen on average 181 percent since 2005. This could be the week action is taken in Illinois to fix our health insurance marketplace for Illinois families and small businesses....