Colorado has canceled a set of hearings meant to probe payers and hospitals over rates, after payers met the state's public option price targets.
The Colorado Option, which took effect last year, requires insurers in the state to offer ACA exchange plans with set benefits at progressively lower price targets.
In March, all but one payer offering plans on the Colorado Exchange said they would be unable to meet the price targets for 2024.
In early June, a hearing with Cigna; Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare; Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth; and Nashville Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, through its Denver-based HealthOne system, was canceled when the payer and hospitals said they had reached an agreement on rates that would allow Cigna to meet the Colorado Option targets.
Hearings scheduled with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare and Anthem have also been canceled.
"The hearings were vacated because the parties (the insurance companies and hospitals) were able to negotiate and reduce provider reimbursement rates to the maximum allowed under statute. Because of this, the division's requested relief was achieved, and therefore the need for an adjudicatory hearing was no longer required," a spokesperson for the Colorado Division of Insurance said in a statement shared with Becker's.
Colorado's Health Care Future, part of Partnership for America's Health Care Future, an interest group backed by several large insurers and health systems, said the decision to cancel the hearings was a "clear indicator that the Colorado Option is failing."
"There is nothing the hearings could have achieved to reduce costs or health insurance premiums given the flaws inherent in the Colorado state government mandates. The hearings would have been ineffective because insurers and providers had already achieved the statutory minimum reimbursement rates independent of the law to ensure access to high-quality care for patients," the group said in a statement shared with Becker's.
The spokesperson for Colorado's Insurance Division told Becker's the hearing process is working as intended by the law.
"Insurance companies and hospitals are working together to lower the costs of providing care, which will save consumers money on their health insurance premiums. So far, this year's public hearing process has shown us that the hearings are an effective tool to get companies and health care providers to negotiate lower reimbursement rates. By lowering reimbursement rates with providers, companies can pass these savings down to consumers in the form of premium reductions," the spokesperson said.