Dive Brief:
- New Hampshire hospitals are upset about being pushed out of the single health insurance plan available on the exchange in that state.
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is the only insurer currently offering plans on the state's health insurance exchange. The payer says that cutting back on the hospital provider list will offset any premium increases.
- New Hampshire hospital leaders in the out-of-network hospitals say that the cuts to the hospital network undercut key goals of the ACA reforms: improving access to health care services and improving population health.
Dive Insight:
Hospitals in New Hampshire may have mixed feelings about being booted from the network serving its health insurance exchange plan. On the one hand, being an out-of-network hospital directs traffic away from the front door. On the other, however, with ACA policies offering relatively low reimbursement, some hospitals have decided that being excluded from the HIX plans isn't such a bad thing. Like it or not, the reality is that narrowing networks has become a key tool for payers to offer "affordable" plans. Under such conditions, hospitals may not have much leverage.