Health Exchanges – Part III

Understanding Your Operational Readiness

In Part I of Building a Health Exchange Strategy the discussion centered on how payers will have to be more consumer centric in their approaches to delivering health care. Part II focused on being aware of the political climate and how that will impact strategic decisions on whether to enter a Health Exchange market and upon entrance how to operate within one. Both dynamics, though critical, outlined external factors. Part III dives into internal factors; particularly around operational readiness.

It is clearly recognized that Health Exchanges offer up a tremendous opportunity for health insurance companies to broaden their consumer base and expand their market share. By making health coverage more affordable it is likely that 30 million of the 45 to 50 million uninsured Americans will enter the market and purchase coverage through a Health Exchange.  Despite this opportunity, there is a high degree of complexity behind implementing and operating a Health Exchange book of business. The work in 2012 and 2013 provides a barrier to entry for smaller firms who may not have the financial and human capital to build the necessary tools and operational foundation to effectively compete with the larger players. Additionally, there are many interdependencies that exist with heavy reliance on each individual state as well as select Federal agencies to coordinate the coverage and manage the financing of the Health Exchange. The three main areas of concern that health insurance companies are grappling with are (1) product and plan design, (2) subsidy calculations and premium collection, and (3) eligibility and enrollment. Today’s article, (Part III, Step 1) will focus specifically on products and plan designs.

Product and Plan Design

Health Exchanges require at a minimum four levels of benefit offerings; bronze, silver, gold, or platinum. The different metals denote the level of coverage each plan must provide. For example, a bronze plan must cover up to 58% and no more than 62% of the health care costs for the health benefits a state deems “essential “ for a health insurer to provide. Likewise, a platinum plan must cover up to 88% and no more than 92% of the health care costs. These plan designs may be dictated by the individual state depending on the type of Health Exchange the state decides to run. Active Purchaser states like New York would be more inclined to create standard plan designs while Facilitator state like Utah would allow health insurance companies to come up with products and plan designs independently.

Within the “Silver” metal plan offerings the Health Exchanges will require the reduction of cost-sharing levels such as deductibles, co-payments, coinsurance, and out of pocket maximums depending on the consumer’s federal poverty level (FPL). For example, a silver plan may have a $1,000 deductible before coverage from the health plan kicks in. However, if a consumer with a FPL below 250% purchases a silver plan, the $1,000 deductible would need to be lowered by up to $500. This provides a level of complexity for health plans that has not been seen before. Lowering the deductible actuarially increases the price of the plan since the plan will provide more coverage. However, that cost of lowering the deductible is returned back to the health plan by the Federal government and not the purchasing consumer.

Additionally, the silver plan created by a health plan will have to be replicated up to 4 times over to accommodate for the variations in cost-sharing reductions that change the plan design of the product for each FPL level. Operationally, this inevitable means multiple people can by the same exact silver plan. However based on their income level, they will have very different plans and very different utilization trends. Accumulator calculators that help health plans count up health care dollars will be imperative to ensure that physicians, hospitals, health plans, and most importantly health care consumers know when they have reached their deductibles and coinsurance maximums. The cost of administering such a complex set of plan designs are still unknown to many health plans; however this has not deterred them from pursuing the Health Exchange opportunity. However, the bigger impact to the cost of administration is how it will work in parallel with minimum loss ratio requirements that mandate the percentage of health care revenue that must be spent on providing health care as opposed to administrative costs; particularly if administrative costs increase due to the complexity of administering these plans.  This will undoubtedly eats away at the profit margins of health care plans that already operate with very low margins (2-4% on average).

Basic Health Option

In addition to the four metal plans a state may opt to offer a Basic Health Option. This basically extends the state’s current Medicaid plan eligibility from beyond the 133% FPL up to 200% FPL. It behooves a state to pursue such an option because the Federal government would reimburse 95% of the costs. Today, the Federal government only pays 50% of a state’s Medicaid costs. As a result, states could potentially realize huge savings by shifting a portion of its Medicaid population to this Basic Health Option.

However, this route is very complex. The nuances here are that the Basic Health Option must have the essential health benefits deemed by the state even though the current Medicaid plans do not. So the population over and above the 133% FPL level will have a similar product however the underlying benefits could be substantially different. This poses complexity to the providers with coding and claim submissions. The states will be free to choose the methodology for their essential health benefit package as long as it represents (1) the most popular small group health plan, (2) the most popular HMO health plan in the state, (3) the health plan offered by the State to its employees, or (4) the health plan offered by the Federal Government to its employees in that state. There is also added complexity to the Basic Health Option when it comes to cost sharing. Deductibles and coinsurance levels are regulated within the health care reform bill to be based on FPL as well. So a health plan would have to administer two different types of Basic Health Plans based on whether a consumer is 133% to 150% of the FPL or if they are 150% to 200% of the FPL. These intricacies cause added complexity when it comes to administering a health plan, accumulating consumers’ deductibles and out of pocket maximums, and ensuring the plan designs receive actuarially sound price increases and adjustments year to year.

Catastrophic Plan

Lastly, individual states will also have the ability to create catastrophic plans that can only be offered to health care consumers under the age of 30. Many industry insiders refer to this population as the “young invincibles”. These plans must also meet the essential health benefit requirements, however the deductibles and out of pocket maximums are allowed to be higher. As a safeguard against consumers forgoing care because of high out of pocket healthcare expense there are a number of protections put in place as well. For example, preventive care and particular routine care must be covered in full and not be subject to the deductible. Additionally, three to four primary care office visits must also be covered in full and not subject to the deductible as well. Pricing for these plans provides a unique opportunity for health insurers since the risk pool and experience of the population will reflect a younger demographic. This means that pricing should in theory be more affordable and subsidies from the Federal government potentially could go a longer way.

In the End

Health Exchanges presents standardization of plan designs to the health care consumer market with the potential of commoditization of health insurers as they compete for market share. As a result, the emphasis on products and plan designs becomes imperative. How an insurer operationally administers health care products in this space will be the differentiator to the consumer. Innovation in finding the ability to be unique in a very regulated space products an opportunity for insurers to make product development the focal point of their Health Exchange success strategy.

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