The Obama administration clarified Monday that health insurers must cover at least one form of birth control, in response to concerns that insurers were ducking requirements.
Guidance issued Monday stresses that insurers must cover at least one form of birth control among the 18 methods identified by the Food and Drug Administration without charging customers an extra out-of-pocket co-payment. Methods include rings, patches and intrauterine devices.
Over the last few weeks, health advocates have been highlighting how many insurers are failing to comply with the requirements, sometimes inappropriately charging co-payments or failing to cover certain birth control methods at all.
The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover without additional charge certain health services considered “preventive,” including not just birth control, but immunizations, screenings and regular checkups as well.
The guidance issued Monday is intended to eliminate remaining “ambiguity” in the requirements, the Department of Heath and Human Services said. “Today we are clarifying these coverage requirements,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said.
It also details some other health services insurers must cover at no additional cost. That includes screening and genetic counseling for women more likely to have genetic mutations that increase risk for breast and ovarian cancer, preventive services for transgender patients and preventive services for adult children on their parents’ plans.
The administration already laid out rules for how insurers must cover preventive services. But women’s groups who generally support the healthcare law, and some Democratic members of Congress, have asked officials to respond to noncompliance concerns.
“Insurance companies have been breaking the law and, today, the Obama administration underscored that it will not tolerate these violations,” said Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for health and reproductive rights at the National Women’s Law Center, a group that recently issued a report on how insurers were illegally limiting coverage. “It is now absolutely clear that all means all — all unique birth control methods for women must be covered.”
