NEW PLANS, CARRIERS AND OTHER
CHANGES FOR THE HEALTH BENEFIT
EXCHANGE
For plan year 2015, open enrollment for Kentucky residents through
the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, better known as Kynect,
began November 15, 2014 and ends February 15, 2015. Patients can
log onto kynect.ky.gov and browse plan options, renew or choose a
plan and choose a Medicaid MCO if they qualify. In Indiana, patients
may enroll for insurance through Healthcare.gov, which has been
revamped from last year’s open enrollment. New individual enrollments for the Qualified Health Plans are expected to soar this year
compared to last due to the pending individual mandate for those
who do not have health insurance.
WHAT’S NEW?
There are almost twice as many plan options (34 total) for individual
insurance on the Kentucky exchange, compared to last year. For Jefferson County, two new carriers, Wellcare and CareSource (Just4Me)
have been added to the previous carriers: Anthem, Humana and the
Kentucky Health Cooperative.
In Indiana, the marketplace now has over 64 plan options to choose
from for individuals. Four new carriers. Ambetter (Managed Health
Services), Assurant Health, CareSource (Just4Me) and United Healthcare have been added in addition to the Anthem plans available
last year.
WHAT SHOULD MY PRACTICE DO?
participation status with the exchange plans. As we have seen in the
past, many provider directories are not up to date, which leads to
confusion for both the staff and for patients. For practices that have
offices in both Kentucky and Indiana, some plans will allow patients
to “cross the river” for care and some still have in-state restrictions,
so it’s important for practice staff to know the difference. Practices
can also remind their patients that if they are shopping for a new
plan to check with the practice to ensure their participation in the
plan before they commit to purchasing one.
GLMS CAN HELP YOU
GLMS has several resources available to GLMS member practices:
a spreadsheet listing the benefit designs of the 34 individual plans
in the exchange which include links to formularies and provider
directories, images of cards from the exchange plan carriers, administrative directories, listing prefixes of the different Anthem
plans so a practice can identify which plans “cross the river” and a
short video available to train staff on the changes for the 2015 plan.
The GLMS Physician Education & Practice Support Department is
always available at 502-736-6354 or at physician.education@glms.
org to answer questions about the exchange. Our staff is available to
come to your office and talk to physicians and other employees about
what ch anges are happening and how practices can best adapt.
Practice a little preventive medicine; verify your practice’s network
FOUNDATION GOLF OUTING PRESENTS
$20,000 IN SCHOLARSHIPS
Four University of Louisville medical students were awarded $20,000 in scholarships thanks to the combined efforts
of the medical and business communities who gathered
at Hurstbourne Country Club on September 23. The GLMS
Foundation’s fourth annual Scholarship Golf Tournament
welcomed more than 70 physicians and sponsors to the
event to raise money for promising young adults pursuing
medicine. The all-tourney sponsor was Stock Yards Bank
& Trust.
Andrea Breaux, Linda Gleis, MD, Toni Ganzel, MD, Meagan Holtgrave, Bob Hecht, Kelsey Gregory and David Watkins, MD, posed
after the scholarship ceremony. Scholarship winner Virginia
Haselden present.
6
GLMS NEWS DECEMBER 2014