The effect of the Affordable Care Act preexisting conditions provision on marriage.

This paper investigates the effect of the Affordable Care Act preexisting conditions provision on marriage. The policy was implemented to prevent insurers from denying insurance coverage to individuals with preexisting health conditions. We test whether the implementation of the provision led to decreases in marriage among affected adults. We add to earlier work on how marital behavior is influenced by spousal health insurance and examine for the presence of "marriage lock," a situation in which individuals remain married primarily for insurance. Using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 2009 to 2017 and estimating difference-in-differences models, we find that male household heads with preexisting conditions are 7.12 percentage points (8.9 percent) less likely to be married after the policy. Using information on insurance status prior to the policy change, we find significant reductions in marriage among individuals with preexisting conditions who were previously insured by spousal health insurance plans. The findings suggest that the inability to attain individual coverage and reliance on spousal insurance provided incentives to remain married before 2014.

Private Insurance Coverage for Diabetes Before and After Enactment of the Preexisting Condition Mandate of the Affordable Care Act, 2005-2016.

OBJECTIVES: To examine private insurance coverage for persons with diabetes before and after enactment of the preexisting condition mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the United States. METHODS: We conducted a nationwide study in adults aged 20 to 59 years with private health insurance with the Clinformatics Data Mart Database (2005-2016). We used fixed-effects negative binomial regression to evaluate differences in pre-post mandate trends. RESULTS: There was a 4% decline in prevalence rates of type 1 diabetes in adults with private health insurance before the mandate and an 11% increase afterward (P < .001). Coverage increased to the greatest extent (-6% before, +20% after) in those aged 50 to 59 years (P < .001). For type 2 diabetes, there was a significant decline in prevalence before the mandate, which increased afterward in those aged 40 to 49 years (-4% before, 3% after; P = .031) and 50 to 59 years (-6% before, 15% after; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Adults with diabetes may have benefited in obtaining private health insurance after implementation of the preexisting condition mandate of the ACA. Public Health Implications. Efforts to limit enforcement of these protections are likely to contribute to setbacks in access to care.

The Proactive Patient: Long-Term Care Insurance Discrimination Risks of Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers.

Previously diagnosed by symptoms alone, Alzheimer's disease is now also defined by measures of amyloid and tau, referred to as "biomarkers." Biomarkers are detectible up to twenty years before symptoms present and open the door to predicting the risk of Alzheimer's disease. While these biomarkers provide information that can help individuals and families plan for long-term care services and supports, insurers could also use this information to discriminate against those who are more likely to need such services. In this article, we evaluate whether state laws prohibit long-term care insurers from making discriminatory or unfair underwriting and coverage decisions based Alzheimer's disease biomarkers status. We report data demonstrating that current state laws do not provide meaningful protections from discrimination by long-term care insurers based on biomarker information.

Clarification of Final Rules for Grandfathered Plans, Preexisting Condition Exclusions, Lifetime and Annual Limits, Rescissions, Dependent Coverage, Appeals, and Patient Protections Under the Affordable Care Act. Final rule; clarification.

On November 18, 2015, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury (the Departments) published a final rule in the Federal Register titled "Final Rules for Grandfathered Plans, Preexisting Condition Exclusions, Lifetime and Annual Limits, Rescissions, Dependent Coverage, Appeals, and Patient Protections Under the Affordable Care Act" (the November 2015 final rule), regarding, in part, the coverage of emergency services by non- grandfathered group health plans and health insurance issuers offering non-grandfathered group or individual health insurance coverage, including the requirement that non-grandfathered group health plans and health insurance issuers offering non-grandfathered group or individual health insurance coverage limit cost-sharing for out-of-network emergency services and, as part of that rule, pay at least a minimum amount for out-of-network emergency services. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, which on August 31, 2017 granted in part and denied in part without prejudice ACEP's motion for summary judgment and remanded the case to the Departments to respond to the public comments from ACEP and others. In response, the Departments are issuing this notice of clarification to provide a more thorough explanation of the Departments' decision not to adopt recommendations made by ACEP and certain other commenters in the November 2015 final rule.

Behavioral Health Coverage In The Individual Market Increased After ACA Parity Requirements.

As of January 1, 2014, the Affordable Care Act designated mental health and substance use services as an essential health benefit in Marketplace plans and extended parity protections to the individual and small-group markets. We analyzed documents for seventy-eight individual and small-group plans in 2014 (after parity provisions took effect) and sixty comparison plans in 2013 (the year before parity provisions took effect) to understand the degree to which coverage for mental health and substance use care improved relative to medical/surgical benefits. The results suggest that plan issuers did what the provisions required them to do. Although in 2013 a lower proportion of plans covered mental health or substance use care, compared to medical/surgical care, in 2014 the proportions were the same. If essential health benefit requirements were to be removed and mental health and substance use coverage becomes similar to that in 2013, as many as 20 percent of the plans in our sample would not cover these conditions. To determine whether increases in behavioral health coverage will result in improved access to behavioral health services requires complementary data on the size of provider networks and use of services.

Assessment of recording bias in pregnancy studies using health care databases: An application to neurologic conditions.

BACKGROUND: Pre-existing conditions are imperfectly recorded in health care databases. We assessed whether pre-existing neurologic conditions (epilepsy, multiple sclerosis [MS]) were differentially recorded in the presence of major obstetric outcomes (Caesarean delivery, preterm delivery, preeclampsia) in delivery records. We also evaluated the impact of differential recording on measures of frequency and association between the conditions and outcomes. METHODS: The 2011-2014 Truven Health MarketScan® Commercial Claims Dataset was used to identify pregnancies. We calculated the relative recording of epilepsy and MS at delivery hospitalization compared with a 270-day pre-delivery window both overall and by the presence of major obstetric outcomes. We estimated risk ratios for the association between epilepsy and MS with the outcomes for each ascertainment window. RESULTS: We identified 909 065 pregnancies in women continuously enrolled from 270-days before the delivery date. Of women with epilepsy identified in the pre-delivery window, 73% had the condition coded at delivery. For MS, the proportion was 60%. MS recording at delivery did not vary by obstetric outcomes, however, delivery-coded epilepsy was less likely confirmed in the pre-delivery window in the presence of preeclampsia. Generally, the period of ascertainment did not meaningfully impact risk ratios, however, the risk ratio for preeclampsia associated with epilepsy was 1.67 (95% CI 1.47, 1.90) when epilepsy was ascertained at delivery and 1.26 (95% CI 1.07, 1.48) when epilepsy was ascertained in the pre-delivery window (heterogeneity, P = .007). CONCLUSIONS: Ascertainment of epilepsy and MS in delivery hospitalization records underestimated prevalence. However, the window of recording generally did not impact risk ratio estimates of associations with obstetric outcomes.

Access to Coverage and Care for People with Preexisting Conditions: How Has it Changed Under the ACA?

ISSUE: Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), people with preexisting health conditions could be denied insurance coverage or charged higher rates. If the law is repealed, these protections could be diluted or lost altogether. GOALS: Assess the ACA's impact on coverage and access for people with preexisting conditions and compare their coverage gains with state high-risk-pool enrollment pre-ACA. METHODS: Analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data for the period 2011­13 to 2015. KEY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: Between 2013 and 2015, 16.5 million nonelderly adults gained coverage following full ACA implementation. Of those, 2.6 million had preexisting conditions that could have otherwise precluded them from coverage because of discriminatory denials and pricing; 9.4 million had conditions that could have otherwise affected insurance cost. We found strong correlations between these coverage gains and access to care. Coverage and access gains for people with preexisting conditions were unrelated to the size or existence of the state high-risk pools that 35 states funded for such individuals pre-ACA. Our findings suggest that proposals to replace current protections for people with preexisting conditions with high-risk pools are unlikely to be sufficient to maintain the ACA's gains.

[The role of the Constitutional Court on the analysis of contracts of prepaid medicine programs]. / El papel de la Corte Constitucional en el análisis de los contratos de medicina prepagada.

Since 1991, when the current Colombian Constitution came into force and the Constitutional Court was appointed as its guardian and protector, constitutional values have permeated all subjects and areas of law, even those that were previously considered as private matters. Prepaid medicine contracts are a good example of this phenomenon, since the Colombian Constitutional Court has limited individual freedom of contract to private parties -prepaid medical companies- for the benefit of final users of this service through "acción de tutela", in order to protect the right to healthcare and to prevent some behaviors that violate the principle of good faith. The Court has demanded private companies to assess the health condition of patients and has prohibited pre-existent and exclusion clauses that diminish the responsibilities of said companies. Nevertheless, there is a gap in the law regarding the duties of good faith that concern the user, which will be addressed in this paper.

Final Rules for Grandfathered Plans, Preexisting Condition Exclusions, Lifetime and Annual Limits, Rescissions, Dependent Coverage, Appeals, and Patient Protections Under the Affordable Care Act. Final rules.

This document contains final regulations regarding grandfathered health plans, preexisting condition exclusions, lifetime and annual dollar limits on benefits, rescissions, coverage of dependent children to age 26, internal claims and appeal and external review processes, and patient protections under the Affordable Care Act. It finalizes changes to the proposed and interim final rules based on comments and incorporates subregulatory guidance issued since publication of the proposed and interim final rules.