More Health Insurers To Offer Plans In Iowa

Oct. 25--CEDAR RAPIDS -- This year, Iowa's open enrollment season will have something last year's didn't.

Choices.

Seven insurers will sell individual or small group plans that are eligible for federal subsidies through the federal marketplace, Healthcare.gov. Open enrollment begins Nov. 1 and lasts until Jan. 31.

Coventry Health Care of Iowa Inc. and Medica Insurance Co. will sell individual plans statewide, while United Healthcare of the Midlands will market individual plans in at least 76 counties, including Linn and Johnson. United Healthcare Insurance Co. will have small-group plans statewide.

Several other companies will sell plans in about a dozen smaller communities, including Sanford Health Plan -- which will offer small-group plans in 10 counties -- as well as Avera Health Plans and Gundersen Health Plan, which will have individual and small-group plans.

The influx is a major shift from last year's open enrollment period, which had plans from only two insurers -- CoOportunity Health and Coventry Health Care.

The Insurance Division was forced to take over CoOportunity in the midst of open enrollment when the non-profit insurer had too many members for its reserves and not enough cash on hand. The division began liquidating the company in February.

CoOportunity Health's collapse left Coventry Health Care -- a division of Aetna Inc., the nation's third-largest carrier -- as the only insurer offering subsidy-eligible plans on the state exchange.

Since CoOportunity's closure, a handful of other health co-ops, all created under the Affordable Care Act with the intention of increasing competition, have closed or announced plans to close by the end of 2015, including co-ops in Louisiana, Nevada, Tennessee, Colorado, Oregon, Kentucky and New York.

'Long-term commitment'

"We don't want to make the assumption that people know who we are," said Dannette Coleman, senior vice president and general manager, individual and family business for Medica, a not-for-profit health insurance company that has about 1.5 million customers in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Since announcing it would join the exchange in May, the Minnetonka, Minn.-based insurer has used the summer and fall to introduce the company to Iowa consumers through a media campaign and a tent at the Iowa State Fair. It's also working with insurance brokers and navigators -- trained individuals who helps consumers and small businesses enroll in the marketplace -- Coleman said.

"They need to know who we are, what we stand for and our products," she added.

The media campaign, which includes TV and radio ads as well as bus wraps and billboards, is driving one particular point home, Coleman said -- that the 40-year-old company may be new to Iowa but it's not new.

"We realize there may be some hesitancy because of what happened with the co-op," she said. "We are making a long-term commitment to this expansion."

Medica will even drive a 40-foot RV around the state to market its brand and sell plans, she said.

"We've never done the RV before," Coleman said. "It's really because of the expansion, we want to have a visible presence, and this is a way to get folks."

Coleman doesn't believe Medica will make a "huge splash" the first time around. But it has a long-term strategy to become "part of the fabric of Iowa," which she said includes a broad, open-access network and some products with little to no deductible, she said.

"We also want to partner with providers to create new products in 2017," she said. "We'll learn in 2016 what people like and don't like, and react to that."

United Healthcare of the Midlands, based in Minneapolis, also has spent the months since its May announcement that it would sell plans on the Iowa marketplace familiarizing brokers and navigators with its products.

"It's been all hands on deck to get the word out," said Scott Williams, UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley executive director. "We've worked hard to make the process easy and convenient."

United Healthcare is an operating division of UnitedHealth Group, the largest single health carrier in the country, which provides coverage to 70 million people.

"We're focusing on aggressively priced products," he said, adding the company has a long history in the state outside of the individual exchange and already has the necessary networks of providers set up.

Even before expanding into the individual market, the insurer has more than 440 UnitedHealth Group employees in Iowa and more than 532,000 customers.

The size and resources of the insurer also allow it to provide additional benefits to those who purchase plans, Williams said, such as a smartphone app that permits users to search for physicians in network, a health care cost estimator and virtual care physician visits. The company has contracted physicians and worked through individual states telemedicine regulations to allow customers to have video-based doctors visits in 47 states and Washington, D.C.

UnitedHealthcare sold insurance plans in 23 states in 2015 and expanded to another 11 -- including Iowa and Nebraska -- for the 2016 open enrollment period.

"We have a very calculated approach," Williams said. "We don't want to be in a market one year and done."

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