By Paige Winfield Cunningham
Seventy Virginians are trying to figure out how the state will comply with new laws engendered by the healthcare overhaul.
Passed by Congress last spring, the healthcare reform bill is estimated to add 16 million people to Medicaid and subsidize private coverage for low and middle-income people through insurance exchanges. In Virginia, that will translate to coverage for a majority of the one in eight residents who are currently uninsured.
In July, Gov. Bob McDonnell gave the state’s interim Medicaid director a new job: to oversee a 24-member Health Reform Initiative Council and six different task forces charged with looking at the ins and outs of meeting the new law’s requirements.
Director Cindi Jones says it’s her job to make sure the puzzle pieces fall into place as the clock ticks closer to 2014—the deadline to expand Medicaid and have an insurance exchange up and running. Along the way, there are two other deadlines officials say are key.
September 23, 2010
Sept. 23 brought two requirements for insurance companies: they had to cover dependent children up to age 26 and could not deny coverage to children under age 16 with pre-existing conditions. Companies seem to have made the transition successfully, says Jackie Cunninghan, deputy commissioner for the Life and Health Division of the State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Insurance.
“We did get a lot of amendments to policy forms to reflect those changes,” Cunningham said. “As far as we know, companies have made that transition well.”
Last summer, Richmond-based NHealth announced it would shut its doors by the end of the year due to the new requirements. Cunningham said she hasn’t seen any other insurance companies close down since, although some have said they may pull out of certain markets.
January 1, 2011
On New Year’s Day, insurance companies will be faced with another new regulation. Called the medical loss ratio, companies will be allowed to spend only a certain percentage of their revenue on overhead. The ratio is intended to limit administrative bloat and keep companies from charging too much for premiums.
“The intention is to ensure companies are paying out 80 to 85 cents to every dollar they’re taking in,” Cunningham said.
