Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act
Women’s Preventative Health Services
These final regulations promote two important policy goals. First, the regulations provide women with access to contraceptive coverage without cost sharing, thereby advancing the compelling government interests in safeguarding public health and ensuring that women have equal access to health care. Second, the regulations advance these interests in a narrowly tailored fashion that protects certain nonprofit religious organizations with religious objections to providing contraceptive coverage from having to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for such coverage. The regulations finalize the general approach described in the proposed regulations, with modifications in response to comments that are intended primarily to simplify administration of the policy.
Section 2713 of the PHS Act reflects a determination by Congress that coverage of recommended preventive services without cost sharing by non-grandfathered group health plans and health insurance coverage is necessary to achieve access to basic health care for more Americans. Individuals are more likely to use preventive services if they do not have to satisfy cost-sharing requirements (such as a copayment, coinsurance, or a deductible). Use of preventive services results in a healthier population and reduces health care costs by helping individuals avoid preventable conditions and receive treatment earlier. Further, Congress, by amending the Affordable Care Act during Senate consideration of the bill to ensure that recommended preventive services for women would be covered adequately by non-grandfathered group health plans and health insurance coverage, recognized that women have unique health care needs. Such needs include contraceptive services. Some commenters asserted that contraceptive services should not be considered preventive health services, arguing that they do not prevent disease and have been shown by some studies to be harmful to women’s health.
The HRSA Guidelines are based on recommendations of the independent Institute of Medicine (IOM), which undertook a review of the scientific and medical evidence on women’s preventive services. As documented in the IOM report, ‘‘Clinical Preventive Services for Women: Closing the Gaps,’’ women experiencing an unintended pregnancy may not immediately be aware that they are pregnant, and thus delay prenatal care. They also may be less motivated to cease behaviors during pregnancy, such as smoking and consumption of alcohol, that pose pregnancy-related risks. Studies show a greater risk of preterm birth and low birth weight among unintended pregnancies. In addition, contraceptive use helps women improve birth spacing and therefore avoid the increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes that comes with pregnancies that are too closely spaced. Short inter-pregnancy intervals in particular have been associated with low birth weight, prematurity and small-for-gestational age births.
Contraceptives also have medical benefits for women who are contraindicated for pregnancy, and there are demonstrated preventive health benefits from contraceptives relating to conditions other than pregnancy (for example, prevention of certain cancers, menstrual disorders, and acne). In addition, by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, contraceptives reduce the number of women seeking abortions. It is for a woman and her health care provider in each particular case to weigh any risks against the benefits in deciding whether to use contraceptive services in general or any particular contraceptive service.
Covering contraceptives also yields significant cost savings. A 2000 study estimated that it would cost 15 to 17 percent more not to provide contraceptive coverage in employee health plans than to provide such coverage, after accounting for both the direct medical costs of pregnancy and the indirect costs, such as employee absence. Consistent with this finding, when contraceptive coverage was added to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, premiums did not increase because there was no resulting net health care cost increase. Specific to public financing of contraceptive services, a 2010 analysis projected that expanding access to family planning services under Medicaid saves $4.26 for every $1 spent. Additional research arrived at a similar conclusion and found that, in total, services provided at publicly funded family planning centers saved $5.1 billion in 2008. Further, the importance of covering contraceptive services has been recognized by many states, issuers, and employers. Twenty-eight states now have laws requiring health insurance issuers to cover contraceptives. A 2002 study found that more than 89 percent of insured plans covered contraceptives. And a 2010 survey of employers revealed that 85 percent of large employers and 62 percent of small employers offered coverage of FDA approved contraceptives, with another 32 percent of small employers reporting that they did not know whether they did so. Furthermore, in directing non-grandfathered group health plans and health insurance coverage to cover preventive services and screenings for women described in HRSA Guidelines without cost sharing, the statute acknowledges that both existing health coverage and existing preventive services recommendations often did not adequately serve the unique health needs of women. This disparity placed women in the workforce at a disadvantage compared to their male coworkers. Research shows that access to contraception improves the social and economic status of women. Research also shows that cost sharing can be a significant barrier to access to contraception.
As IOM noted, women use preventive services more than men, generating significant out-of-pocket expenses for women. Thus, eliminating cost sharing is particularly critical to addressing the gender disparity of concern here. The Departments aim to advance these compelling public health and gender equity interests by providing more women broad access to recommended preventive services, including contraceptive services, without cost sharing, while simultaneously protecting certain nonprofit religious organizations with religious objections to contraceptive coverage from having to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for such coverage, as described in these final regulations. Moreover, through these final regulations, the Departments seek to achieve these goals in ways that take into account the responsibilities imposed on health insurance issuers and third party administrators.
These sections of the final regulations finalize technical amendments to the existing preventive services coverage regulations as proposed. The final regulations amend paragraph (a) of the existing regulations so that the general requirement to provide coverage for recommended preventive services without cost sharing is subject to the religious employer exemption and eligible organization accommodations discussed later in this section. The regulations also finalize proposed amendments to paragraph (a)(1)(iv) of the existing regulations. As amended, the authorization for HRSA to exempt religious employers from the contraceptive coverage requirement and the definition of religious employer are now located in new 45 CFR 147.131(a) of the HHS regulation and incorporated by reference in the regulations of the Departments of Labor and the Treasury. There are no other changes to the provisions of the 2010 interim final regulations related to providing coverage for recommended preventive services without cost sharing. Accordingly, consistent with the general rules for the provision of coverage for recommended preventive services without cost sharing set forth in the 2010 interim final regulations, nothing prevents a plan or issuer from using reasonable medical management techniques to determine the frequency, method, treatment, or setting for an item or service to the extent not specified in a recommendation or guideline and nothing requires a plan or issuer that has a network of health care providers to provide benefits or eliminate cost sharing for items or services that are delivered out-of-network.
