$6M Settlement Sheds Light on Ongoing ‘Shady Behavior’ of Some MEWAs

May 12

After the Trump administration loosened the regulations governing association health plans — and ignited a court battle that ultimately blocked the new rules — AHPs and their close cousin, multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs), have largely faded from the headlines. However, a recent announcement from the Dept. of Labor (DOL) regarding a MEWA that failed to pay $54 million in health claims shows that the fraud and insolvency issues that have long plagued such plans haven’t gone away.

“My sense is that there are what we call self-funded MEWAs out there that may be kind of operating under the regulatory radar,” says Sabrina Corlette, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR).

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Health Plan Weekly

Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.