The District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) recently received a $150,000 grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to perform a feasibility study on the creation and initial operation of a qualified high-risk pool for the District’s uninsurable population. The timeframe for the project was set for Sept. 30, 2007, to March 31, 2009, however, DISB anticipates that it will complete the project substantially ahead of time.

“We expect this feasibility study would establish a mechanism for the District of Columbia to provide services to medically uninsurable District residents,” said DISB Commissioner Thomas E. Hampton. “We hope the study would show that the establishment of a high-risk pool in the District will be an acceptable alternative to the CareFirst Open Enrollment Program, which provides coverage to those who are medically uninsurable.”

The CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Open Enrollment Program will expire February 2008, leaving those District residents who are unable to obtain health insurance from the market without an alternative. This includes recent graduates, those between jobs, part-time workers, early retirees or those whose employers do not offer group health insurance.

DISB drafted the District of Columbia Health Insurance Plan for Uninsurable Individuals Emergency Act of 2007, which created the high-risk pool for individuals currently eligible for the CareFirst Open Enrollment Program, the DC HIPAA coverage (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and those health care tax-credit eligible individuals. It is estimated that the pool would cover about 2,800 District residents. DISB will examine the proposal with stakeholders, including the mayor, councilmembers, consumer groups, the hospital association, the medical society and the health care industry, as well as address its impact on the District’s insurance market and other eligible individuals.

“DISB is hoping that all these measures will help reduce the number of uninsured persons in the District of Columbia,” said Commissioner Hampton, adding that without the high-risk pool, the District may see the number of uninsured rise once the Open Enrollment Program expires. 

The Government of the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) regulates all financial-service businesses in the District of Columbia. DISB has two overall missions: to provide fair, efficient and fast regulatory supervision of financial-service activities for the protection of the people of the District of Columbia; and to create conditions that will attract and retain national and international insurance, securities, banking and other financial-services businesses to the District.