Kennebunk, Maine-based Mark Farrah Associates, a provider of health plan market data and analysis tools, recently assessed enrollment trends since the onset of the Affordable Care Act's 2014 enrollment season in October 2013.
In its business strategy report entitled "Notable Enrollment Trends since the Onset of ACA," MFA analyzed various tendencies as reported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, California Department of Managed Health Care and MFA's ASO estimates.
Here are five things to know about MFA's findings.
1. When comparing Blues and non-Blues plans, medical membership changes occurred across commercial segments. Blues plans gained over 2.3 million commercial members between the fourth quarter of 2013 and 2Q15. However, commercial enrollment for non-Blues plans decreased by 0.3 percent.
2. Medicare membership also increased for Blues and non-Blues plans. Medicare non-Blues plans increased membership by 35.9 percent between December 2013 and June 2014. Medicare Blues plans increased enrollment by 13.3 percent over the same period.
3. Medicaid enrollment experienced the largest growth. As of June 2015, CMS reported 71.9 million Medicaid members, up 13.1 million since October 2013. For June 30, 2015, insurance companies that file NAIC statutory statements reported Medicaid membership of 43.8 million, an increase of 13.8 million since December 2013.
4. The five main leaders with Medicaid business are Anthem, UnitedHealth, Centene, Molina and WellCare. Collectively, they added 5.8 million members, equating to a 44 percent share of the total national growth in Medicaid enrollment over the 18 month period.
5. Out of the five leaders, Anthem had the greatest change in product line mix with a shift toward Medicaid. Anthem's Medicaid mix was 15.4 percent as of June 2015, which is a 3.6 percentage point increase since the end of 2013.