News Briefs

✦ The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration earned CMS approval for a policy that will allow members of its Medicaid expansion program, the Healthy Indiana Plan, to spend up to $1,000 of HIP benefits on commercial insurance fees. All HIP beneficiaries have a $2,500 annual “POWER” account that can be used similarly to a health savings account. However, POWER accounts are not portable, and until the new policy, HIP members who moved from HIP to a commercial plan gave up the balance of their POWER account. Going forward, transitioning HIP members will be able to use the POWER funds to pay commercial insurance premiums, deductibles, copays and other forms of cost sharing for up to 12 months after leaving HIP. Read more at https://bit.ly/3gTuJLR.

✦ Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) reaffirmed the five health plans that were initially selected to run the state’s Medicaid program. The selections were initially made by previous Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, but Beshear nullified the original contract awards. A total of 1.4 million Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries will be divided between CVS Health Corp.-owned Aetna, Humana Inc., Molina Healthcare, Inc., UnitedHealthcare and Centene Corp.’s WellCare Health Plans, Inc. Passport Health Plan, the second-largest MCO in the state and an incumbent contract-holder, was once again not chosen. Evolent Health, which bought a 70% stake in Passport when it was on the brink of insolvency, said it supports Passport’s plan to protest the decision. Read more at https://bit.ly/2ACCkxF.

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