Following InHealth receivership, ODI urging policyholders to seek other coverage

Following a Franklin County judge decision last week to appoint the Ohio Department of Insurance as receiver of InHealth Mutual to take control and liquidate the company, state officials are urging policy holders to start looking for other coverage (Source: “InHealth policyholders should start seeking options,” Chillicothe Gazette, May 31, 2016).

ODI has received approval to put Coordinated Health Mutual Inc., a nonprofit co-op insurer created under the ACA that operated under the name InHealth,  into receivership, with Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor appointed as receiver.

ODI reported that about 2,000 InHealth health insurance policies are in place in Ross County among the 22,000 policies across the state.

David Hopcraft, director of communications for ODI, said that under receivership, ODI will manage the company while it is phased out. Existing policies will be honored through the end of their yearlong term, with policyholders continuing to pay their monthly premiums, providers required to honor their contracts for service to InHealth customers and vendors working to continue providing services to the company. Hopcraft said it is likely to be later in 2017 before the company is fully dissolved.

There are shorter-term concerns for policyholders, however, particularly those who receive a federal subsidy toward their premium costs through participation in the federal insurance marketplace.

"If they got this (policy) through the federal health exchange, they got a subsidy with it," Hopcraft said. "Their subsidy is not continued as part of this, so out into the future, they wouldn't be getting their subsidy necessarily and they should go online to the federal exchange and try to find a company that they can get their subsidy with."

Policyholders will be receiving a letter in the mail that will serve as official notice of the changes, and that letter will suggest those getting a subsidy begin looking for new coverage within the next 60 days.