Last week I reposted a press release & video from the Rhode Island Dept. of Administration explaining the details of a major security breach of the state's social services system.
Today it looks like the issue was a lot worse than I thought. via WPRI:
On Monday, Gov. Dan McKee said his team has identified 650,000 people whose personal information was stolen in the recent cyberattack on the state’s IT system for social services.
Yikes. FWIW, Rhode Island only has around 1.1 million people, so this basically means that 60% of the entire state population has had their personal info compromised.
...Earlier this month, the cyberattack shut down the state’s IT system known as RIBridges, which serves as an eligibility database for a host of social services, such as SNAP and Medicaid, along with subsidized health insurance through HealthSourceRI.
On December 13, 2024, the State was informed by its vendor, Deloitte, that there was a major security threat to RIBridges, the system that manages many of the state’s social services programs. Additionally, Deloitte confirmed that there is a high probability that a cybercriminal has obtained files with personally identifiable information.
This is the State of Rhode Island’s dedicated webpage for all the latest information on the breach. We understand this is an alarming situation, and we appreciate your patience as we investigate this matter. We will continue to navigate this challenge together.
Update 12/16/24: 5 Steps to Protect Your Personal Information Today
Governor McKee issued a public service announcement to encourage potentially impacted Rhode Islanders to take 5 steps to protect their personal information today. (see video above)
Update 12/15/24: RIBridges Data Breach Hotline Now Available
It was in early 2021 that Congressional Democrats passed & President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded & enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act, finally bringing the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place over a decade earlier.
In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 - 400% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned "Subsidy Cliff" at 400% FPL, wherein a household earning even $1 more than that had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.
Here's what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:
I got so far behind on my annual rate filing project that some of the states have started issuing their APPROVED changes before I got around to analyzing the REQUESTED rate changes. Ah, well...
Not a whole lot to report in the smallest (physically) state of the Union. Rhode Island only has two insurance carriers participating in the individual health insurance market, while six of them compete in the small group market. Thankfully, the SERFF database not only has all eight of these filings, each of them has at least one document which includes the actual number of RI residents enrolled in the carriers policies.
As a result, I can run a fully weighted average for both markets: In the individual market, carriers are requesting an average rate hike of 6.6%, while small group market insurers want to bump up premiums by 6.8% overall.
UPDATE 10/03/23: The Rhode Island Insurance Commissioner has issued a press release with the final, approved 2024 rates; the table has been updated below. In the end, individual market policies are going up 5.8% while small group plans are only going up 4.0% on average.
CMS marked another important maternal health milestone by approving Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) postpartum coverage expansion in Rhode Island, an opportunity made possible by the American Rescue Plan. With this approval, 32 states and D.C. have extended postpartum Medicaid/CHIP coverage to a full year.
They include links to the approval letters for both Medicaid and CHIP, but the Medicaid one is oddly both extremely brief ("We received your request; it has been approved") and wonky at the same time, while not being in an easy-to-copy text format.
4,318 Rhode Islanders are newly insured, supporting state’s outstanding insured rate of 97%
PROVIDENCE – HealthSource RI (HSRI) announces that its annual Open Enrollment period has concluded as of January 31, with 4,318 Rhode Island residents newly enrolled in the affordable qualified health plans available through the state marketplace. An additional 24,343 individuals, or 83% of last year’s customers, renewed their coverage during the same period starting November 1.
That's 28,661 QHP selections total, down 11.4% from the 2022 Open Enrollment Period.
“We’re encouraged that each year more Rhode Islanders are taking advantage of the quality, affordable coverage options available to them through HealthSource RI,” said Governor Dan McKee. “Rhode Island continues to be a national leader in health coverage and HSRI is an instrumental piece of the effort to maintain our extraordinarily high rate of insurance coverage.”
HSRI’s Open Enrollment period begins on November 1st and runs through January 31, 2023
PROVIDENCE, RI – Governor Dan McKee announced that tomorrow is the first day of Open Enrollment for Rhode Island’s health insurance marketplace, HealthSource RI (HSRI). From November 1, 2022 through January 31, 2023, individuals can enroll, change or renew their health coverage at HealthSourceRI.com/OE or 1-855-840-HSRI (1-855-840-4774).
To support this effort, trained and certified HSRI staff will hold the first of several virtual information sessions at 9:30 a.m. on November 3. Sign up information, as well as additional info sessions, can be found at HealthSourceRI.com/Events.
Via the SERFF database, it looks like Rhode Island's two individual market carriers have had their 2023 individual market rate changes finalized. Blue Cross Blue Shield is increasing rates lower than they originally requested (3.1% instead of 9.6%), while Neighborhood Health Plan rates are increasing more than they originally asked for (8.3% vs. 6.9%).
Overall weighted average increase: +6.1%, down from +8.0%.
Unfortunately I can't find the final rate change filings for the small group market yet.
