Georgia defends health insurance waiver as vendor interest builds

Georgia officials have pushed back against a federal health agency’s request for more financial information on the state’s insurance waiver plan.

A letter dated July 2 says that Georgia’s approach to replace the Affordable Care Act’s healthcare.gov enrollment set-up with a privately run process has already been approved by the feds. The Georgia “Section 1332’’ waiver has also attracted much interest from insurers and potential vendors, the state says.

The letter asserts that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ recent request for more financial information “came as a surprise’’ and does not follow the approved waiver process.

The political context of the dispute is that while the Trump administration approved the state’s waiver requests, the Biden administration has taken a more critical view, and is reevaluating them.

The letter from Georgia to the feds was signed by Grant Thomas, director of the newly created Governor’s Office of Health Strategy and Coordination.

That office is charged with, among other duties:

Developing approaches for lowering health care costs and improving access to care

Facilitating coordination among various state agencies on health issues

Reviewing existing state health care contracts.

States use waiver applications to seek federal permission to make changes in certain health care programs.

Georgia recently postponed the launch of another waiver — to increase Medicaid enrollment for low-income adults — as the feds continue to review it.