Georgia's insurance commissioner is asking federal insurance regulators for more time to review health plans being submitted for the public insurance exchange.
Ralph Hudgens, who is also Georgia's fire safety commissioner, asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to give the seven insurers proposing plans for the federally-managed exchange an extra 30 days to turn in their plans.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) is tasked with qualifying health plans for federally-run exchanges, with the authority to reject premium increases greater than 10 percent.
In a press release, Hudgens warned of higher premiums in Georgia as a result of compliance with the Affordable Care Act's essential health benefits and age rating rules and said that some insurers are proposing "massive" rate increases.
Hudgens also said that an actuarial analysis of the rates proposed suggested six of the health plans premiums were justified while one might run afoul of federal premium increase limits.
Hudgens, an elected official, is not the first to complain of or challenge health reform compliance, but regulatory waivers from CMS have a rich tradition -- and there are other states seeking them for insurance exchange policy, like Massachusetts, asking for a waiver from the ACA small business rating rules, and Arkansas transitioning Medicaid beneficiaries to a subsidized plans.
Georgia, meanwhile, has one of the nation's most competitive insurance markets, with seven companies basically sharing the majority of the market at shares greater than five percent, with the state's largest insurer, WellPoint's Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, having a roughly 35 percent combined PPO and HMO market share, followed by UnitedHealthcare at 32 percent, according to American Medical Association data.
CCIIO's deadline for the submission of qualified health plan applications is July 31. Whether or not a delay in the rate review would lead to a delay to October enrollment isn't clear.
There is still some uncertainty among federal watchdogs over whether the Internal Revenue Service will be able to meet deadlines for administering applications and tax credits. Alan Duncan, assistant inspector general for tax administration at the Treasury Department, recently told a congressional committee that there could be glitches in the IRS's data management of advance premium tax credits, noting a pending audit of the IRS's readiness for the premium tax credit application and calculator.