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October 29, 2012 at 05:21 AM
The California Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) has doubled in size in the past year.
The state’s Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB) has reported on PCIP program performance in documents posted in connection with a recent board meeting.
The California PCIP program had 13,565 enrollees in mid-September, up from 4,667 a year earlier.
The latest utilization summary showed that the enrollees had 1,692 inpatient hospital admissions during the second quarter, with an average length of stay of 6.3 days.
The enrollees used outpatient services 18,854 times during the quarter.
The most common diagnosis by plan payment is for patients who are getting chemotherapy, the second most common is for patients who are getting immunotherapy, and the third most common is for patients who contend with morbid obesity.
The most common procedure, by plan payment, is injections with a substance that helps increase white blood cell counts, and the second most common procedure is radiation treatment. Office visits for an established patient rank just fifth on the list.
When morbid obesity appears on the top diagnosis list, “it mostly appears in relation to a single, high-cost claim subscriber,” according to the meeting minutes.
If the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) takes effect on schedule and works as drafters expect, it will require insurers to start selling subsidized coverage on a guaranteed issue, mostly community-rated basis in 2014.
