Payers Successfully Navigate ACA Market Turbulence

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its resulting market turbulence has not created the operation challenges for payers that was expected, according to a report from athenahealth, Inc.

The PayerView Report measures payers' financial, administrative, and transactional performance, and revealed that payers offering health plans in Medicaid expansion states and on the health insurance exchanges are actually performing better than those not participating.

"As providers increasingly take part in risk-sharing models and navigate big changes such as ICD-10, finding payer partners that have strong core operations and are differentiated on performance and transparency will be key," Todd Rothenhaus, chief medical officer of athenahealth said in a statement. "The financial, administrative, and transaction metrics that we use to rank payers provides a powerful guide for providers as they work to serve patients and get paid most efficiently."

athenahealth found that in 2013 and 2014 Medicaid expansion states performed better than non-expansion states. Blue Cross Blue Shield plans and commercial payers offering health plans in the health exchanges performed better than carriers ot in health exchanges in both years. Payers participating in ACA implementation appear to be performing better overall.

Read more at athenahealth: http://bit.ly/1Asbsda