NEWS & VIEWS

December 19, 2024

2025 Indiana General Assembly & Policy Priorities

The 2025 legislative session begins on Wednesday, January 8! Keep an eye on this space for bill lists, notices of committee hearings, and other updates on topics that impact the 2025 policy priorities.

CKF staff, board, and volunteers have arrived at 2025 policy priorities in three key areas: healthcare coverage, schools and early childhood, and health parity. CKF embraces the important role it holds as connector of insurers, practitioners, Medicaid clients, state agencies, school districts and Navigators with the aim of accessible and equitable healthcare coverage. View the priorities here. 

Household Spending on Premiums Would Surge If

Enhanced PTC Expire

New Urban Institute research demonstrates how monthly out-of-pocket spending on health care premiums would surge for millions of people if the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits expire in 2025. Initially approved by Congress in 2021 and renewed in 2022, these premium tax credits help families maintain their health care coverage by making premiums more affordable. They are set to expire at the end of 2025.

Refresh your memory about this topic by watching the 2024 State of Coverage Policy Summit on Premium Tax Credits here.

2025 ISHN Conference Call for Proposals is Open!

The theme, Health at Home & Beyond, acknowledges that home is not limited to a physical dwelling. Young people thrive in spaces of learning, working, playing, and reverence. Home can represent any space where Hoosier kids feel safe, secure, nurtured, and heard. It is incumbent upon the adults in their lives to create those environments. Join this year’s conference to support the next generation of school and health professionals and the children they serve. The conference is June 9-11, 2025 at Embassy Suites Plainfield.



Submission deadline is January 6, 2025.

Call for Sponsors is Open!

Sponsorship levels and associated benefits can be found in the Sponsorship Prospectus below.

Submission deadline is April 1, 2025.

Call for Exhibitors is Open!

This conference is expected to be attended by over 600 professionals including but not limited to: educators and school administrators, nurses and other healthcare professionals, social workers, outreach and enrollment specialists, managed care professionals, child health advocates, early childhood professionals, and government program partners. The information and resources that exhibitors provide are an integral part of the overall success of the conference.

Reserve your booth now - space is limited!

COVID 19 Coverage

Retroactive to October 1, 2024, certain COVID-19 treatments, including screening tests and vaccines, will no longer be covered services for Indiana Health Coverage Program (IHCP) members in limited-benefit programs including Emergency Services Only.

SNAP & Medicare Advantage

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued new guidance to states regarding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. The guidance clarifies that flex, debit, or credit cards from a Medicare Advantage insurer should not count as income when applying for SNAP benefits.

This guidance builds on similar language regarding Supplemental Security Income and recent clarification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that “the [Medicare Advantage] debit card itself is not the supplemental benefit, rather, it is the mechanism through which the MA organization administers and pays for the covered supplemental benefit.” 

Marketplace Autorenewals

During open enrollment, consumers already enrolled should review their coverage to ensure their current plan is the best for their needs. If they do not, the Marketplace will redetermine their eligibility for 2025 advanced premium tax credits (APTC) and assign them to a plan for the coming year. Beyond the Basics offers detailed FAQs on this process covering a variety of scenarios. 

DACA and the ACA

Last week, a preliminary injunction was issued by Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court of North Dakota, blocking people with DACA from accessing ACA marketplace coverage and premium tax credits in 19 states.

Yesterday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay on the preliminary injunction. As a result, DACA recipients and enrollees with certain other immigration statuses may enroll in ACA marketplace coverage in all states, including the 19 states affected by the preliminary injunction.

ACA marketplace enrollees will receive a notice from the marketplace if future court decisions affect their coverage. People can check this website for information about how court decisions affect ACA marketplace coverage.

New C2C Resources

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) offers a variety of Coverage to Care (C2C) booklets in a variety of languages to help consumers understand the healthcare delivery system and coverage. New resources include:

• Information on Telehealth
• Flyers and posters geared towards college students including new language translations

New Email Service for State Agencies

The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) is switching to a new email service provider. It's important that people continue to receive IDOH updates without any disruptions. Please check the new subscription preference page here to manage subscriptions and check to see if the email address has successfully transferred to the new platform.

To avoid missing out on any agency communications, please take a moment to update the preferences on the subscription page.

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) is transitioning to Salesforce Marketing Cloud for all agency email updates on Jan. 1, 2025.

Please add fssa@subscription.in.gov to your email address book or safe sender list to help ensure FSSA communications are delivered to your inbox and not marked as Spam. 

Your email address should have migrated over to the new system, but if you would like to verify your subscription, unsubscribe, or sign up for additional distribution lists, please click here.

Social Determinants of Health

VOICES of Black Women Study 

VOICES of Black Women is a transformative long-term study, led by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and powered by the voices of Black women across the US. The goal is life-changing: to better understand health conditions like cancer and improve overall health among Black women. This study will be the largest cohort study of cancer risk and outcomes among Black women in the United States, with a goal to recruit 100,000 Black women.

Advancing Equity for Black Patients with Serious Illness

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) has released a new guide, Advancing Equity for Black Patients with Serious Illness, offering practical strategies to address these health disparities. Drawing on research, real-world health equity initiatives, and insights from leaders in the field, the guide serves as a roadmap for change agents committed to advancing health equity and improving outcomes for Black patients.

Lack of Civic Infrastructure Drives Rural Health Disparities

According to a County Health Rankings & Roadmaps analysis, the health disparity gaps between northern American rural counties and Southern American rural counties is significant. Rural counties dominate the least healthy quartile, while urban counties are more likely to rank in the healthiest group, and rural counties in the U.S. face unequal access to civic infrastructure, such as libraries, broadband internet, and local news.

Nutrition Supports

The Kaiser Permanente Nation Community Benefit Fund is hosting a webinar to discuss Medicaid Nutrition Supports: Implementation Innovations. The panel will feature Medicaid agency staff from Michigan and Massachusetts who will discuss how to design and implement nutrition services for positive impacts on enrollee health. 

The webinar is on January 9, 2025 at 1 pm ET.

Community Health Worker & Medical Billing and Coding

MICI-AHEC recently released their 2025 workforce development opportunities. Please see below for links to apply.

CHW (Community Health Worker) - will be interviewed in order to participate

Program starts: February 10, 2025

Apply: https://forms.gle/JdefJA74asQXRp549

Eligibility: 18 and older with high school diploma or GED/HSE

Interviews: January 6th to January 24th, 2025

Selections Announced: January 29th, 2025

Classes Conclude: The week of March 31st, 2025

Weekly Meetings: Mondays, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm (8 consecutive weeks) 

Medical Billing and Coding (NEW)

Program start: February 3, 2025

Apply: https://forms.gle/FaiZSTCkXbvriGyp8

Eligibility: 18 years old and older with GED/HSE

The average Indiana health insurance premium reached $8,236 last year?

Employer-sponsored plans remain the primary source of health insurance for most Americans under 65 and their families, covering nearly 165 million people in 2023. However, the cost of providing these benefits is becoming increasingly difficult for both employees and employers. Projections for 2025 indicate that healthcare costs will increase by 8%, reflecting the continued pressure of rising prices. Read the full article here.

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