Colin McCulloch, an Associate in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the Washington, DC, office, was quoted in an article titled "Extension of Cancelled Health Plans May Hit Insurers' Profitability."
Following is an excerpt:
President Barack Obama's bid to throw a life preserver to stranded consumers who received cancellation notices from their health plans may lead to financial losses and uncertainty for payers and increase bad debt for hospitals.
Last week, Obama offered state insurance commissioners the option of letting insurers extend for one year recently cancelled plans but encouraged insurers to still direct customers to the health insurance exchanges. ...
Because the numbers of individuals involved is comparatively small, the impact on hospitals will likely be small, said Colin McCulloch, associate in healthcare law at Epstein Becker Green and a former hospital CFO. ...
"How this rolls out from the hospital perspective depends on how much uninsured do they now get paid for versus how much bad debt from deductibles and coinsurance will they incur," he said. "But you wouldn't see a big swing either way." ...
"That could be a significant difference," McCulloch said. "Hospitals are not good at managing bad debt vs. charity." ...
