HHS proposes options for contraception coverage rule

The Obama administration on Friday suggested a number of ways it might arrange for insurers to pay for the contraception of employees of religious organizations without using any premium money from those groups.

Associated Press/USA Today:  Obama Admin. Outlines Birth Control Policy Options
The Obama administration signaled Friday it's willing to help insurance companies offset the cost of providing free birth control to women working at church-affiliated institutions like hospitals and colleges. ...Friday's proposal lists options for carrying out the president's compromise without forcing insurers to bear the whole cost -; or tempting them to engineer backdoor maneuvers to recoup money from religious institutions that object to birth control (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/16).

National Journal: Obama Administration Tries To Clear Up Contraception Questions
The Obama administration proposed three ways self-insured religious employers could avoid paying for contraception. The first would have a third-party administrator pay for the contraception coverage and recoup the costs through drug rebates or other fees. The second would have the federal government pay the third-party administrator a rebate within an insurance fee program that starts in 2014 and is established under the health reform law. The third option would have the third-party administrator contract with an Office of Personnel Management plan on state insurance exchanges to offer contraception coverage alone (McCarthy, 3/16).

Kaiser Health News: HHS Floats New Ideas For Contraception Coverage Compromise
The administration hasn't formally proposed any of the ideas made public Friday as regulations. Instead, it offered them as possibilities in a notice seeking public comment. The notice encourages other ideas to be offered over the next 90 days. After that, the administration would formally propose a regulation with its preferred method or methods (Rau, 3/16).

Los Angeles Times: Obama Administration Proposes Options On Birth Control Coverage
The proposal drew quick praise from women's rights advocates and other groups that support broader access to contraception, including Planned Parenthood. But it is unclear whether the administration will satisfy major religious groups such as Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Assn. of the United States, representing Catholic hospitals. "We have to spend time reviewing it," said the group's president, Sister Carol Keehan, a leading backer of the new healthcare law who has been working with the administration to protect her members from having to pay for contraceptive coverage (Noam N. Levey, 3/16).

PoliticoPro: HHS Spells Out New Options For Contraception Coverage Rule
HHS also issued a final rule on Friday regulating student health plans offered by universities. They spell out that religious universities will largely have to follow the same rules for providing contraceptive coverage for their students that they will have to for their employees. But self-funded student plans will be exempt, because HHS does not have the authority to regulate them under current law (Feder, 3/16).

Kaiser Health News has related coverage on the issue: FAQ: The Obama Administration's Compromise On Contraception Benefits