| HIPAA Certificates of Creditable Coverage No Longer Required |
| The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently issued final regulations that amend the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) portability rules. Beginning December 31, 2014, HIPAA Certificates of Creditable Coverage are no longer required. |
| Background |
| HIPAA was enacted to, among other things, ensure that health insurance coverage would be portable. When moving from one employer to another, employees worried about whether the coverage from their next employer would cover their, or a member of their family’s illness or recurring medical condition. Insurance carriers commonly limited or excluded coverage for pre-existing conditions for a certain period of time or sometimes excluded coverage altogether for some conditions. |
| To ensure continued, uninterrupted insurance coverage, HIPAA required group health plans to distribute Certificates of Creditable Coverage when covered employees or their spouse or dependents lost coverage. The certificate was used when purchasing or obtaining new coverage to ensure uninterrupted coverage for all pre-existing conditions. |
| The Affordable Care Act (ACA) removed the portability concern altogether by prohibiting group health plans from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014. By eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions from all group health plans, the need to distribute Certificates of Creditable Coverage is obsolete as of December 31, 2014. |
| CONEXIS Administrative Changes |
| Starting January 1, 2015, CONEXIS will no longer mail Certificates of Creditable Coverage to individuals who lose group health plan coverage. If you have questions concerning this change, please contact your CONEXIS representative for further information. |
