Oklahoma health insurance marketplace guide 2023

Oklahoma had four carriers in its exchange in 2015, but only two in 2016, and just one in 2017 and 2018. But Medica joined the exchange statewide in 2019, and Bright Health has joined the exchange in Oklahoma City as of 2020.

UnitedHealthcare was new to the Oklahoma exchange for 2016, but offered plans outside the exchange in 2015. They exited the exchange at the end of 2016.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma no longer offered the Blue Choice provider network in the individual market as of 2016 (but continued to offer it in the group market). There were about 40,000 insureds in Oklahoma who had to switch to plans that use the Blue Advantage or Blue Preferred networks — both of which are PPOs, but narrower than Blue Choice. The Blue Advantage network is concentrated in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metro areas, and is not available at all in 25 of the state’s 77 counties. Most existing enrollees were eligible for auto-renewal, but Blue Choice network insureds who opted for auto-renewal were mapped to a plan with a different network. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma ended up with 95% of the exchange market share for 2016.

CommunityCare stopped offering plans in the exchange at the end of 2015. They had fewer than 2,000 insureds as of late 2015. (They rejoined the exchange in 2021.)

Global Health offered plans in the exchange in 2015, but exited the individual market at the end of 2015.

Time/Assurant exited the individual market nationwide at the end of 2015.

Enrollees who had coverage through Global Health, CommunityCare, and Time/Assurant needed to select new coverage from one of the carriers offering plans in 2016. Although according to Lexology, those three carriers accounted for less than three percent of Oklahoma’s exchange enrollees in 2015. The exchange had 108,614 effectuated enrollees as of June 2015, so there were somewhere around 3,200 people who are impacted by the withdrawal of those three carriers from the market in Oklahoma. The rest of the enrollees — about 97 percent of the total in 2015 — were covered under Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma plans.

Aetna participated in the exchange in Oklahoma in 2014, but exited the exchange (and the entire individual market in Oklahoma) just prior to the start of open enrollment for 2015 coverage. They did not offer individual market coverage in Oklahoma in 2015 or 2016, on or off-exchange.

But for 2017, they had indicated that they would rejoin the Oklahoma exchange, albeit only in the metropolitan areas of Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Aetna’s exchange plans did appear in the Oklahoma SERFF filings for 2017, although the carrier indicated earlier in the summer that their plan to rejoin the exchange for 2017 had not yet been finalized.

In early August, Aetna announced that they were canceling their plans to expand their exchange presence in 2017. They already offered coverage in 15 exchanges, but had planned to expand into five more in 2017, including Oklahoma. Their change of heart meant that Blue Cross Blue Shield was the only carrier offering plans when open enrollment for 2017 got underway in November 2016.

That continued to be the case for 2018 as well, but Oklahoma’s exchange got a new insurer in 2019 when Medica joined statewide. And Bright Health joined the exchange in the Oklahoma City area as of 2020. Their participation was fairly short-lived however, as they are exiting the Oklahoma market at the end of 2022.

For 2021, Oscar, UnitedHealthcare, and CommunityCare HMO joined the exchange in Oklahoma, bringing the number of participating insurers to six. And for 2022, Friday Health Plans and Ambetter joined the exchange, brining the number of exchange insurers to eight.

For 2023, there were initially seven participating insurers, as Bright Health stopped selling plans in the Oklahoma exchange (or in any other state) as of 2023. But Friday Health Plans stopped being sold in mid-2023, and all existing Friday policies will terminate on August 31, 2023.