CMS marked another important maternal health milestone by approving Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) postpartum coverage expansion in Rhode Island, an opportunity made possible by the American Rescue Plan. With this approval, 32 states and D.C. have extended postpartum Medicaid/CHIP coverage to a full year.
They include links to the approval letters for both Medicaid and CHIP, but the Medicaid one is oddly both extremely brief ("We received your request; it has been approved") and wonky at the same time, while not being in an easy-to-copy text format.
4,318 Rhode Islanders are newly insured, supporting state’s outstanding insured rate of 97%
PROVIDENCE – HealthSource RI (HSRI) announces that its annual Open Enrollment period has concluded as of January 31, with 4,318 Rhode Island residents newly enrolled in the affordable qualified health plans available through the state marketplace. An additional 24,343 individuals, or 83% of last year’s customers, renewed their coverage during the same period starting November 1.
That's 28,661 QHP selections total, down 11.4% from the 2022 Open Enrollment Period.
“We’re encouraged that each year more Rhode Islanders are taking advantage of the quality, affordable coverage options available to them through HealthSource RI,” said Governor Dan McKee. “Rhode Island continues to be a national leader in health coverage and HSRI is an instrumental piece of the effort to maintain our extraordinarily high rate of insurance coverage.”
HSRI’s Open Enrollment period begins on November 1st and runs through January 31, 2023
PROVIDENCE, RI – Governor Dan McKee announced that tomorrow is the first day of Open Enrollment for Rhode Island’s health insurance marketplace, HealthSource RI (HSRI). From November 1, 2022 through January 31, 2023, individuals can enroll, change or renew their health coverage at HealthSourceRI.com/OE or 1-855-840-HSRI (1-855-840-4774).
To support this effort, trained and certified HSRI staff will hold the first of several virtual information sessions at 9:30 a.m. on November 3. Sign up information, as well as additional info sessions, can be found at HealthSourceRI.com/Events.
Via the SERFF database, it looks like Rhode Island's two individual market carriers have had their 2023 individual market rate changes finalized. Blue Cross Blue Shield is increasing rates lower than they originally requested (3.1% instead of 9.6%), while Neighborhood Health Plan rates are increasing more than they originally asked for (8.3% vs. 6.9%).
Overall weighted average increase: +6.1%, down from +8.0%.
Unfortunately I can't find the final rate change filings for the small group market yet.
Survey Results Come as Wallet Hub has Ranked the Ocean State as #1 in the Nation for the Best Health Care
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I.– A preliminary analysis of the latest Rhode Island Health Insurance Survey (HIS) shows that Rhode Island has reached its lowest uninsured rate ever recorded. For the first time, just 2.9% of Rhode Islanders are uninsured, a reduction from the 4.0% the last time this survey was conducted in 2020. According to federally collected data through 2020, only Massachusetts and Vermont have ever recorded a state uninsured rate lower than 3.0%. This news comes as WalletHub has ranked Rhode Island as the best state in the country for health care.
No formal press release from the Rhode Island Insurance Dept. yet, but according to the SERFF database, here's the preliminary rate filings for 2023 for their individual & small group markets.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island:
CY 2021 Experience Period
We did not adjust the 2021 experience period for Covid‐19. We also did not make any adjustments due to the end of the expanded federal subsidies under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) or the end of the federal public health emergency.
CY 2023 Projection Period
We included a Covid‐19 factor in Other to adjust CY 2023 to reflect a 50% decrease in anticipated Covid‐related spend for the CY 2023 projection period compared to the level in the CY 2021 experience period.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (April 14, 2022) HealthSource RI’s Open Enrollment period was held from November 1, 2021 and ended on January 31, 2022. This was a very successful Open Enrollment period for HealthSource RI (HSRI), with enrollments increasing to 31,445 in 2022 compared to 30,071 in 2021. These mark HealthSource RI’s highest enrollment numbers since 2020.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), enacted by the federal government in February 2021, provided historically high savings in the form of subsidies/tax credits for eligible individuals and families in Rhode Island. ARPA also created a new opportunity for individuals and families whose income is over 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL) to receive financial assistance.
HSRI’s extended Open Enrollment period begins today and runs through January 31, 2022 with huge savings on health coverage available to most Rhode Islanders.
EAST PROVIDENCE – Open Enrollment through HealthSource RI, Rhode Island’s health insurance marketplace, begins today November 1, 2021 and runs through January 31, 2022 to help connect Rhode Island residents with high-quality, low-cost or no-cost coverage for 2022. Thanks to the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), coverage through HealthSource RI is now more affordable than ever.
State of Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner Requested and Approved Summary for 2022 Rates in the Individual, Small Group, and Large Group Markets
The Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC) has completed its review of plan year 2022 rates for the individual, small group, and large group markets. This document is a summary of the requested and approved amounts for each insurer by market.
As required by the ACA, OHIC reviews premiums in the individual and small group markets by examining the following components:
I've once again relaunched my project from last fall to track Medicaid enrollment (both standard and expansion alike) on a monthly basis for every state dating back to the ACA being signed into law.
For the various enrollment data, I'm using data from Medicaid.gov's Medicaid Enrollment Data Collected Through MBES reports. Unfortunately, they've only published enrollment data through December 2020. In most states I've been able to get more recent enrollment data from state websites and other sources. Unfortunately, Rhode Island is among the few states where I haven't been able to get ahold of post-2020 data yet, even estimates.
Rhode Island's total Medicaid enrollment (including ACA expansion) reached an all-time high of around 313,000 back in mid-2017. Since then it gradually dropped to around 290,000 just ahead of the COVID pandemic...but since then non-expansion enrollment has gone up by 7% and the ACA expansion population has risen by over 30%, meaning total enrollment is up 12% overall.
