The Corbett administration’s efforts on the Healthy PA initiative continue to move forward. Late last week, the Department of Public Welfare issued a Request for Application (RFA) for private market health plans to provide for physical and behavioral health coverage services under the Healthy Pennsylvania Program (HPP).
The HPP is a new program designed to provide physical and behavioral health coverage to citizens that have income that falls below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The state estimates that there are approximately 500,000+ Pennsylvanians who are eligible for this coverage.
In addition to increasing health care access to those citizens, the goals of the HPP are to provide essential health care benefits in accordance with federal and state laws and regulations, promote health behaviors, improve health outcomes and increase personal responsibility. The program is scheduled to begin on January 1, 2015.
Participation in the HPP will be limited to Commonwealth of Pennsylvania-licensed health insurance entities. There will be a thirty-day comment period, and the deadline for proposals is noon, June 10, 2014.
A question and answer session for bidders will be held from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Thursday May 15, 2014 at the Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center, University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work, 403 East Winding Hill Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055.
For more information about Healthy PA, visit www.dpw.state.pa.us/healthypa.index.htm