In Brief: Most Covered California Enrollees Kept Plans; CDPH Lifts WIC Mortatorium

Most Enrollees Stuck With Covered California Plans In 2015

Covered California has announced that a huge majority of those who purchased coverage through the exchange last year have renewed through 2015.

According to exchange officials, some 1 million enrollees qualified for renewal (another 85,000 were eligible for Medi-Cal). Of those, 944,000 were referred back to their insurers for a potential renewal – an overall renewal rate of 92%.

“We’ve set in motion the renewal process for most of our enrollees, and we are pleased with the number of enrollees who are in the process,” said Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee. 

Of those forwarded to their insurers, 576,000 took no action, meaning they were automatically renewed. According to Covered California, another 368,000 explored their options, with 54,000 switching carriers.

“In this first renewal period, while we saw some movement from plan to plan,” Lee said, “Covered California’s consumers mostly decided to stay where they were, with many consumers continuing in their same plans — even if they shopped among other options.” 

Of those, Health Net had the biggest net loss, with 9,042 switching to other carriers. Anthem Blue Cross of California lost another 4,949 enrollees. Kaiser Permanente gained the most, with 11,990 net new enrollees who had switched carriers.

CDPH To Lift New WIC Vendor Moratorium

The California Department of Public Health will lift a nearly three-year moratorium on admitting new retailers to the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

CDPH, which administers the WIC program in California in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, imposed the moratorium in mid-2012 after concerns had been expressed about rapidly rising prices for groceries and other products distributed by WIC. 

Both agencies wanted breathing room in order to a formulate new policies about cost containment. The changes primarily allow CDPH to more closely vet applicants and their prices prior to admission to the program and not after that fact, officials said. The USDA recently notified CDPH that it could lift the moratorium.

The moratorium was partially lifted last year to admit large grocery store chains and those with existing WIC contracts in others states. That added about 240 retail locations to the approximately 4,300 WIC providers statewide.

The moratorium will be lifted on Feb. 1. The CDPH has predicted that about 200 new vendor/retailers will be added to the program in coming months as a result.

“This positive step will improve availability and access for the approximately 1.4 million women, infants and children who participate in the California WIC program,” said CDPH Director Ron Chapman, M.D. “USDA and CDPH continue to work together to ensure the strategies now in place are effective in containing food costs and comply with federal regulations and mandates.”