Health plans offered through Covered California have narrower hospital networks than commercial insurance plans but they don’t appear to have lower-quality providers or differences in geographic access, according to a study published in the May issue of Health Affairs.
Health plans with narrow networks restrict the number and scope of contracting physicians and hospitals to keep premiums low. Narrow networks are not new, but they have proliferated under the Affordable Care Act as health plans participating in both state marketplaces and the federal healthcare.gov balance cost with access.
The Health Affairs study analyzed hospital networks available to Californians through private commercial coverage and through Covered California during the initial enrollment period of 2013 to 2014. For comparison, the researchers chose four insurers in each region of the state that offered plans in both the commercial market and through Covered California. These were: Anthem, Blue Shield of California, Kaiser Permanente and Health Net.
The study included 338 hospitals in 19 regions of the state.
Overall, Covered California enrollees had about 83 percent of the number of hospitals in-network compared to those with privately purchased insurance, according to the study.