Friday in Baltimore--The Way to Actually Accomplish Something

Intentionally or unintentionally, my sense is that the White House came out of Baltimore thinking they are now on to something, and I hope the Republicans took the same lesson away.Constructive good faith political engagement in Washington actually works.It is just incredible that House Minority Leader John Boehner has had not direct contact with the White House for about a year. A pox on both

The State of the Union--The President Came to a Fork in the Road and He Took It

As Yogi Berra said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."The President came to a fork in the road tonight on health care reform. Would he do what many liberals have demanded--push harder to pass the Democratic health care bills? Or, do as many moderate Dems and some Republicans have called for--work to get a smaller but bipartisan health care bill?Listening to his speech he seems to be

The California HIPAA Dance

For those who have been following the near-hourly updates on my HIPAA insurance page, the one word I would use to describe the recent activity is--CHAOS.

Anthem Blue Cross initiated what has essentially become a "you-know-what contest" between the two Blues concerning their respective HIPAA portfolios.

The chronology is as follows:

Fall, 2009 - Anthem retires the Share PPO portfolio (retired plans do not need to be offered in the HIPAA mirror of plans)

Jan 11,2010 - Anthem Blue Cross announces a complete HIPAA portfolio overhaul, replacing the 1500 and 2500 Share plans with HMO plan. DOI-registered PPO plans remain the same (5000 and Basic 1000)

Jan 15, 2010 - Anthem closes new enrollments on the 1500/2500 at end of business day

Jan 18, 2010 - Blue Shield CA advises an impending change to the HIPAA products, but cannot comment until 1/22

Jan 22, 2010 - In response to the Anthem HIPAA portfolio change, Blue Shield closes the Spectrum PPO portfolio and eliminates the Spectrum PPO 1500 and 2000 from the HIPAA portfolio. New plans will be available effective Mar 2, 2010 and include an HMO plan, 5500 PPO, 5000 PPO and 4000 HSA-compatible PPO

Jan 25, 2010 - Anthem indicates that a new enrollment requirement applied to the HMO plans will go into effect on Feb 8 in regard to the PPO plans as well (DOI plans). This new requirement will, in effect, guarantee that all Anthem Blue Cross HIPAA enrollees will experience a minimum 30- to 60-day gap in coverage between expiration of group (COBRA/Cal-COBRA) and enrollment in the HIPAA plan.

Please stay tuned to my blog and HIPAA page for further updates as information becomes available.

Plan B—There Isn’t One—But There Could Be

As the State of the Union approaches Democrats are considering their health care policy options. There are lots of reports about “Plan B”—pushing through the Senate bill with a parallel corrections bill that could be passed in the Senate using reconciliation rules.That’s as dead as the original House and Senate health care bills. Moderate Democrats have no stomach for such a legislative stunt in

A Smaller Bipartisan Health Bill? What It Could Look Like

In the wake of the Massachusetts vote, Democrats are scrambling to find a way out of the health care political mess they are in.Right now they are in a daze standing by waiting to see if any of the "trial balloons" they have launched gain any traction. So far, ideas to ram though the now toxic Senate bill in the House in one parliamentary form or another are falling flat.Last night, the President

Stick a Fork in It! The Democratic Effort to Pass a Health Bill is Dead

Tuesday’s Republican victory in Massachusetts means the current Democratic health care bills will not be on the President’s desk in 2010.Forget the crazy talk of ramming something through—including just having the House pass the pending Senate bill.I’ve talked to lots of people in the past few months that didn’t like the Democratic effort but conceded that the Dems won the 2008 election on a

The Silver Lining in the Massachusetts Vote

The Silver Liningby Brian Klepper and David C. KibbeMassachusetts voters' stunning rejection of Democrat Martha Coakley, in favor of a not-very-impressive Scott Brown, should be exactly the splash of cold water that the Democratic party - and Congress as a whole - needed. The defeat can be understood in two ways: one large and one fairly small.First, the large one. This will probably send reform

The Union “Cadillac” Tax Sweetheart Deal

Just when you thought you couldn’t be more cynical about the health care bill.As I have said before, there wasn’t a lot of hope the same administration that ignored the rule of law in granting unions priority over Chrysler bondholders was going to offend them on the “Cadillac” tax.We’ve seen the “Louisiana purchase” giving Senator Landrieu hundreds of millions for her vote, only to be upstaged by

Cal-COBRA Subsidy Change?

I have the current word on the applicability of ARRA extension in regards to Cal-COBRA.

As it stands currently, the state of California has not amended the applicable law nor signed off on this change. If you remember, when the first ARRA came out, California had to amend existing law to allow for subsidy on Cal-COBRA.

Until such time as the state agrees to amend and sign off, there is NO extension of subsidy for Cal-COBRA to 15 months and no eligibility for subsidy for any beneficiaries going onto state continuation after 12/31/09.

I will update the blog if there are any changes forthcoming. In the meantime, it is 9 months subsidy with a sunset of Dec 31 2009.

A Great Summary of Where We Are

Good friend Brian Klepper has an excellent round-up of recent blog reactions to the health care bill's progress in a "Special Edition of Health Wonk Review."It is posted on The Health Care Blog.It is really worth your time.