Kansas legislators hear health care update

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas insurance department official said that the agency is working with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas to provide guidance for continuing coverage for some 10,000 policies that previously were canceled because they wouldn’t have conformed to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Linda Shepherd, the health policy director for Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, told a legislative oversight committee Monday that Kansas Blue would renew the policies for one year for customers who still want them and was working to get the policies reviewed and in place.

“We expect that Blue Cross will be sending letters to these insured in the very near future explaining the various options that are available to them,” Shepherd said.

The company opted to restore the policies after President Barack Obama announced this month that insurers would be allowed to keep offering existing plans for at least another year, even if those plans don’t comply with federal coverage mandates. At least 4 million U.S. customers had already received cancellation notices.

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Shawnee Republican and chairwoman of the Legislature’s Health Care Oversight Committee, said there remained many unknowns about the federal system and how it would impact residents and their coverage.

“We don’t know where we will wind up,” she said.