Carriers Give Low-Income Members Option to Pay Premiums in Cash

In April, Los Angeles-based L.A. Care Health Plan said it had contracted with PayNearMe to give its insurance exchange enrollees the option of paying premiums with cash . A few months earlier, Humana Inc. unveiled a similar arrangement through its partnership with CVS Health’s retail division and InComm, an electronic payment network. Other health plans are eyeing such strategies that give members more ways to pay their premiums.

Prior to the launch of public insurance exchanges in 2013, an estimated 41 million individuals lacked health coverage — about half of them either didn’t have a bank account, or had one but relied on alternative financial services, such as payday loans.