State officials say they haven’t been hobbled a bit by their HIP replacement.
In fact, from its launch on Feb. 1 until the end of May, the new version of the Healthy Indiana Plan has pushed enrollment from 60,000 to 289,000 without breaking stride.

That puts enrollment in HIP 2.0, as it’s called, exactly where state officials expected to be, said Joe Moser, director of the Indiana Medicaid program, which includes HIP.

“We had been preparing for several months to launch the program, in anticipation of getting approval [from the Obama administration],” Moser said. “That time between last July and January when it was approved gave us a good amount of time to implement the program when we received approval.”

Nearly 60,000 of the new participants came over from Medicaid programs that were folded into HIP 2.0. But 170,000 participants are completely new to state-funded health insurance. HIP 2.0 provides each participant with a POWER account (similar to a health savings account), which must be partially funded by the participant.

Participants with incomes below the federal poverty line who do not make a payment into their POWER accounts get moved to something called HIP Basic, which has fewer benefits than the HIP Plus program for participants who do make POWER account contributions. Participants with incomes above the poverty line who don’t make POWER account contributions are locked out from any benefits for 60 days.
So far, Moser said, 71 percent of HIP 2.0 participants are in the HIP Plus program that requires POWER account contributions. And that percentage has been climbing.

Moser said the performance of the state staff that has handled the rush of HIP enrollments has been so good that he feels confident starting an ad campaign to promote even more sign-ups.

By the end of June, the state plans to launch a campaign promoting the things Hoosiers don’t receive when they’re uninsured. The campaign will cost about $2.2 million, split equally between the state and federal government.

“The basic gist of the creative is pointing out the types of things that Hoosiers go without when they don’t have health coverage: ignore chest pain, skip colonoscopy, to know blood sugar levels,” said Jim Gavin, director of media and communications at the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, which oversees the Indiana Medicaid and HIP programs. Print, radio, TV and billboard advertisements will direct their audience to a website or a call center for more information. “It’s a real public health message,” Gavin said.

The campaign will be the first real test of the state’s ability to handle what has been “immediate sustained uptake” into HIP 2.0, said Caitlin Priest, director of public policy at Covering Kids & Families, which helps Hoosiers in 32 counties enroll in health insurance programs.

“It went off really well at the beginning,” Priest said. But, she added, “The $64,000 question is what is the impact going to be of this PR campaign on the infrastructure?”

Priest said the initial wave of participants have been folks with significant health needs but also significant knowledge of health insurance.

The next wave most likely will be those with less knowledge of insurance and health, who may have more questions and more complicated situations than the first wave.

“This next wave, subsequent wave will probably require a lot more case management and a lot more health literacy and insurance literacy,” Priest said.

The state hired 220 additional employees to handle the rush of HIP 2.0 enrollment. Moser said HIP 2.0 is on pace to have 357,000 participants by the end of the year and 519,000 by the end of 2016.

“We want to increase the public awareness of the program, and the fact that we have a coverage option for our low-income residents,” Moser said. “There are still pockets for the state that need more awareness.”

I recently had the opportunity to visit Alcoa in Warrick County. With my background in manufacturing and production, I was interested in Alcoa’s operations and learning more about this successful, local business. Knowing that June is National Safety Month, I was also intrigued by Alcoa’s dedication to maintaining a safe working environment by going above and beyond the required safety standards to implement the best practices for their employees’ needs. While touring the facility, I learned that in a five year period, ending in 2014, the plant had a recordable Occupational Safety and Health Administration rate of 1.8, lower than the national average.

National Safety Month is not only a time to think about workplace safety, but also safety in the community, and oftentimes, these issues overlap. As a legislator, I am dedicated to supporting legislation that protects our community and increases safety measures for hardworking Hoosiers. This session, we passed multiple measures to increase workplace safety, particularly for our public safety personnel through increased training; training which will benefit our communities as well.

For example, House Enrolled Act 1182 allows the Division of Fire and Building Safety to establish a fire and public safety academy training system. Similar to Indiana’s current Law Enforcement Academy, this will help create uniform training standards for firefighters across Indiana, in an effort to decrease the number of civilian fire fatalities while also decreasing injury amongst those who protect and serve.

The division will be able to develop programs in conjunction with other organizations and education institutions to create and conduct the most beneficial programs for training public safety personnel. Training currently varies for firefighters from one community to another which can unintentionally hinder cooperation between different units. This legislation will especially help rural communities, like ours, who often find it difficult to attend a centrally located academy.

Another new law, which will go into effect on July 1, requires police reserve officers to complete mandatory in-service training to help them interact with those who have a mental illness, addictive disorder, intellectual disability, autism, developmental disabilities, dementia and more. Police reserve officers will also receive training concerning human trafficking and high-risk, missing persons. This training provides reserve officers with a better understanding of how to best help members of our community that are affected by these circumstances, creating a safer environment for both them and the officer.

I am pleased with our work this session to increase public safety, and I am proud to have an upstanding company, such as Alcoa, in our community. Since June is National Safety Month, I encourage you to spend some time in the coming weeks thinking about ways that you too can increase the safety of our local community. I encourage you to contact me with ideas on how we can work together to achieve this goal. I can be reached anytime by phone at 317-232-9671 or by email at h78@iga.in.gov.

Rep. Sullivan (R-Evansville) represents portions of Vanderburgh and Warrick counties.

Dave Stafford for www.theindianalawyer.com

An Indianapolis cardiologist who lost his hospital privileges lost an appeal of his lawsuit against Indiana University Health and affiliated doctors Friday.

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment granted to defendants in Bertram A. Graves, M.D. v. Indiana University Health, f/k/a Clarian Health Partners, Inc., Richard Kovacs, M.D., and Edward Ross, M.D., 49A05-1412-PL-560. Bertram Graves challenged the grant of summary judgment in his lawsuit that claimed breach of contract, discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He also claimed the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to compel discovery and in striking parts of an affidavit.

Judge Cale Bradford wrote a 31-page unanimous opinion that held Graves’ second amended complaint was untimely, that an IU Health peer review panel had given him a fair hearing, there was adequate evidence to support its decision, and that IU Health had adequately responded to discovery requests. There also is no evidence to support a discrimination claim, the panel concluded.

“In sum, we conclude that the trial court acted within its discretion in denying Dr. Graves’ motion to compel and in striking certain paragraphs from Dr. Graves’s affidavit,” Bradford wrote. “We also conclude that the trial court did not err in granting summary judgment in favor of the Appellees. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.”