Chamber Analysis of Governor’s Request to Expand Healthy Indiana Plan

The Pence administration last week unveiled plans to request a waiver from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP). This expansion of HIP would be in lieu of a traditional Medicaid expansion. The announcement had been anticipated for several weeks.

The Healthy Indiana Plan, or HIP 2.0 as it is now being referred to, will have three “pathways” to coverage: HIP Basic, HIP Plus and HIP Employer Benefit Link. It is funded through the existing cigarette tax, the hospital assessment fee and federal Medicaid funds.

The Basic HIP plan is for Hoosiers below 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Basic members use an entirely state funded power account (similar to a health savings account) to cover a $2,500 annual deductible. The HIP Plus plan is for Hoosiers under 138% of FPL. They will be required to make contributions that range from $3-$25 per month. Members of HIP Plus and the state will jointly fund the power account based on a sliding income scale. This plan also includes dental and vision coverage.The HIP Employer Benefit Link allows HIP eligible individuals to enroll in either HIP Plus or receive a defined contribution power account funded by the state to access an employer-sponsored program. The defined contribution must be used to pay for premiums, co-pays or deductibles.

The Indiana Chamber has supported the expansion of HIP as an alternative to a traditional Medicaid expansion. The HIP plan has encouraged individual responsibility by attempting to mirror consumer driven health plans. HIP also reimburses at 100% of Medicare (higher than Medicaid), which ensures more provider participation and reduces cost shifting to the private sector, a point that is important to employers. The Indiana Chamber believes that the HIP Employer Benefit Link option will be an interesting program to potentially provide coverage to Indiana’s working poor. The Indiana Chamber will be securing more details on how the program will be implemented and will provide our members that information as it is received.

On a related note, this $25 million budget savings to the state – if the HIP expansion is approved by CMS – could cause some problems for insurance carriers providing health insurance coverage to the individual market in the insurance exchange/marketplace. The state is transitioning from a (209b) state, with its own disability definition, to what is called a “1634” state. Under a 1634 state, the administration will accept disability definitions of the Social Security Administration. As a result of the switch, the state will no longer be required to maintain a spend-down program. This program allowed those with high medical expenses to become eligible for Medicaid after they spent a designated portion of their monthly income on medical expenses. As of December 2013, there were over 134,000 people in this spend-down program.

Of that spend-down population, nearly 7,500 have incomes over 100% of FPL. It is this population that will be transferred to the insurance exchange/marketplace to purchase qualified plans in the commercial market. Medicaid claims for those individuals have been over $1,800 per member per month. Total claims for March 2013 through March of 2014 were $134 million. That amount is significantly higher than under normal individual insurance plans.

Insurance carriers participating in the insurance exchange filed their rates in May of last year. Those rates included calculations for the high risk pool being transitioned into the exchange, but the 7,500 “1634” transition eligibles are not included in those rates. This has serious impacts on those carriers: Significant losses to those participating which will result in considerable increases in current rates to cover the cost; those carriers that waited and will be coming into the exchange in 2015 have an advantage over those current participants in that they are taking on none of this additional risk; and for the smaller carriers there is a concern whether they will be able to participate in the exchange in the future, thus potentially jeopardizing Hoosier choices.

The Indiana Chamber will continue to evaluate and comment on this issue as more information is available.

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