The federal government provided the organization with millions in low interest loans, but it didn’t meet the requirements.
A nonprofit organization based in Westerville, Ohio, was the recipient of almost $130 million in low interest loans from the federal government, in order to assist it in developing health insurance plans that would provide consumers with additional choices while shopping on the state exchange to purchase their coverage for 2014.
However, the group did not manage to complete all of the requirements to be able to sell coverage in Ohio.
The group, called Coordinated Health Mutual (also known as InHealth Mutual), has failed to meet all of the necessary requirements in order to obtain a state license to sell health insurance in Ohio. The outcome is that its plans will not be included among those that have received approval by the Ohio Department of Insurance and that have been sent forward to the federal government in order to be reviewed and certified for sale on the online exchange.
Enrollment on the health insurance exchanges starts on October 1, so that coverage can be purchased in time for next year.
According to the InHealth Mutual CEO, Briggs Hamor, the group is hopeful that the federal government will still allow the nonprofit to be able to sell health insurance on the exchange in 2014, once it has obtained its license in the state. Hamor said that he believes that the organization will obtain its license before the end of August.
At the beginning of last week, Hamor stated that “They’ve implied the window might still be open, but it’s not a done deal.” However, he is now saying that it is “not likely” that the group will receive its approval in time to be able to sell health insurance on the online marketplace by the time January arrives. He added that the group is still hopeful to be able to sell plans to both small businesses and individuals off the exchange.
InHealth is a “consumer-operated and –oriented” health insurance plan. It is among 24 similar plans across the country that received a total figure of $2 billion in loan money from the federal government.