Brad Herring Appointed to MHIP Board of Directors (web article)

Brad Herring, PhD, associate professor with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, has been named the newest member of the Maryland Health Insurance Plan’s (MHIP) board of directors. MHIP was designed to insure individuals with chronic health conditions who are unable to obtain health insurance in the private market. As a board member, Herring will be responsible for governing the plan, which operates as an independent unit of the Maryland Insurance Administration.

MHIP was established by the Maryland General Assembly under the Health Insurance Safety Net Act of 2002. It is a state health insurance plan that provides coverage to Maryland residents who are unable to obtain health insurance due to a health condition or have recently lost group coverage. For MHIP members with limited incomes, the MHIP+ program provides discounted premiums and lower cost sharing. Moreover, the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan provision led to the new MHIP Federal program, a federal health insurance plan administered by MHIP that also provides individual coverage to Maryland residents who are unable to obtain health insurance due to a health condition and have been uninsured for at least six months. These three different MHIP plans are administered by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and CareFirst BlueChoice, Inc.

“The services provided by MHIP are quite important to the health and well-being of Maryland residents who are considered uninsurable in the individual health insurance market due to a pre-existing condition,” said Herring. “It is an honor to be named to the MHIP board directors and I’m particularly pleased to be able to apply my economic research expertise in health insurance to help the Maryland community in this manner.”

The MHIP board of directors is comprised of ten members, five of whom represent various stakeholders such as insurers, businesses and consumers and five of whom are ex-officio appointees by virtue of their current positions in government. Herring was selected as one of two consumer members by the state Attorney General’s Health Education and Advocacy Unity upon recommendation by the Bloomberg School’s dean, Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH.

Public Affairs media contact: Natalie Wood-Wright at 410-614-6029 or nwoodwri@jhsph.edu.