Christus Health Plan made a mistake in New Mexico. They filed the wrong rates for their plans this year. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is allowing them to correct their rates at the next data refresh. This data refresh will be in the middle of the month. Until then, CMS and Healthcare.gov is suppressing Christus’ plans in New Mexico.
For people who want to buy Christus plans, this just means they have to wait a couple of weeks. However for people who did not want to buy a Christus plan this is an error in your favor in seven counties:
| State | County | Issuer Name | SLS |
|---|---|---|---|
| NM | Dona Ana | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
| NM | Los Alamos | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
| NM | Rio Arriba | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
| NM | San Juan | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
| NM | San Miguel | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
| NM | Santa Fe | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
| NM | Taos | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
While the Christus plans are suppressed, these seven counties will see a new second least expensive Silver plan. That second least expensive Silver plan is the temporary benchmark from which all premiums subsidies are calculated. All of these counties have at least two non-Christus Silvers, so the gap between the #3 Silver and #1 Silver is bigger than the gap between the #2 Silver (including Christus) and the #1 Silver. That new gap is between $9 and $45 per month larger for a single 40 year old.
If you live in these New Mexico counties and you don’t have any preference to buy a Christus plan, you will get a better deal buying now before the data refresh than you would have based on the window-shopping information. There is a chance that the new Christus rates after the data refresh will reset the Silver benchmark lower again.
So here is an instance of an error working in the buyer’s favor, so take advantage of it if you can.
ThresherK
I had no idea the Cleveland Browns were also in the healthcare bidness.
Salty Sam
+1 for ThresherK’s comment. I’ve been on Christus Health Plans (through the exchange) for the past two years, and have been waiting for 10 months for today, so I can shop for a new plan.
Christus’ plans and service are so bad that my PCP’s office refused to honor their plan last year- I had to get a “temp” PCP for this year (for med maintenance). My original PCP (who I liked a lot) would not even schedule an office visit for me if I was on CHP’s plan.
I bought into Christus based on price. It does not surprise me that they screwed the pooch on their New Mexico rates, that’s the level of competency I have come to expect from them. If they were the only plan on the exchange in my county this year, I would consider going without insurance.
ken
Yup, signed up for my non-Christus subsidized NM plan on hc.gov this morning. The subsidies came thru based on the benchmark being the Molina silver loaded plan. Woot!