The End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Is Inevitable. Here’s What That Could Mean for Health Plans
With the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting policy changes, the health plan landscape is facing some complex challenges ahead.
A key factor contributing to these challenges is the Public Health Emergency (PHE) that was declared in January 2020 and renewed on July 15. As a condition of receiving enhanced federal funds during the PHE, states have been required to ensure continuous Medicaid and CHIP coverage for most enrollees by pausing eligibility redeterminations—a process in which the state determines if a member is still eligible for coverage due to factors such as income level.
As a result, many lives are covered and are staying covered under Medicaid, but the PHE—despite its recent extension through Oct. 13, 2022—won’t be in effect forever. To understand the current health plan landscape and how it might be affected by the eventual discontinuation of the PHE, my team and I analyzed the latest enrollment data from AIS’s Directory of Health Plans (DHP).
To learn more about the key findings—and what they could mean for insurers across the U.S. and their members—check out our recent article in FierceHealthcare.
