Given that enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges has basically flatlined, one might not expect insurers to view the exchanges as a growth opportunity. But recent moves by some of the country's largest payers suggest otherwise.

Centene Corp. said on Sept. 11 that it will widen its ACA marketplace footprint by selling plans in "nearly 400 new counties" next year. The company will increase its presence in 13 of the states where it already sells plans, plus enter two new states: Michigan and New Mexico.

The climate for payer mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has cooled substantially at a national level ever since the collapse of the proposed deals between Anthem, Inc. and Cigna Corp. and between Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. However, consolidation in the provider sector has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as such firms grapple with the rapid collapse of fee-for-service revenue, AIS Health reported.

The breakdown of Anthem's bid to acquire Cigna resulted in a public spat and dueling lawsuits over Cigna’s attempt to exit their agreement before exhausting the firms' option to appeal a federal ruling against the transaction. On Aug. 31, the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that neither firm had to pay damages to the other over the failed deal.

A promised executive order that would tie drug prices to their costs in other countries has yet to emerge, although President Donald Trump has promoted the order as part of his re-election campaign. Meanwhile, payers and PBMs are continuing to push back against three executive orders the Trump administration issued in July with the intention of lowering drug prices, one of which would overhaul the Medicare Part D prescription drug rebate system, AIS Health reported.

"I think the purpose of these executive orders is to give the president some talking points going into the debates," says Avalere Health founder Dan Mendelson. He adds that, regardless of their purpose, the orders will not make a difference in the real world any time soon.

Although federal relief legislation tied to the pandemic required health insurers to waive cost sharing for COVID-19 testing, not treatment, many plans opted to do both anyway. In fact, a recent analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that 80% of enrollees in the individual and fully insured group insurance markets were in plans that voluntarily waived out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 at some point during the pandemic, AIS Health reported.

Yet according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker analysis, published Aug. 20, 20% of individual and fully insured group plan enrollees are in plans where a cost-sharing waiver for COVID-19 treatment has already expired, and another 16% are in plans where the waiver is scheduled to expire by the end of September.

Health insurers are conducting outreach to people who may have been left without coverage as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, but experts say they may be partially stymied in their efforts to get people enrolled in new plans by the difficulties of operating within a pandemic environment, AIS Health reported.

AmeriHealth Caritas, which is run by Independence Blue Cross in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, says it has launched a series of videos designed to help potential Medicaid enrollees learn how they can apply.