By KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Officials for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state’s largest private health insurer, said they would continue to offer individual and small-group plans that originally were slated to come off the market because they didn’t meet the coverage standards of the federal Affordable Care Act.

The announcement came after federal health officials said last week that they were extending another Obamacare deadline so that the plans could continue to be renewed for plan years starting through October 2016.

Blue Cross officials said about 10,000 of the company’s individual policyholders would again be allowed the option of continuing with the plans, if they already have them. About 1,400 small-group customers also will be allowed to extend their policies.

“We must continue to be flexible for our members and do the best that we can to adjust to changes made by regulators,” said Mary Beth Chambers, a company spokesperson. “This change is actually a slight bit easier to administer – the initial extension required system changes to reinstate 10,000 individual contracts while informing those members as quickly as possible. With this change, individual policyholders in these plans are set until the end of the year.”

Last week’s announcement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was the second time that the agency extended the deadline for having the plans off the market.

The first delay or extension was announced in November.

“Our biggest task” as a result of the latest extension, “is to reach out to the more than 1,400 small groups with renewals in April, May and June to let them know that they can keep their current plan, something that we had previously told them we could not,” Chambers said.

The company also offers plans that meet the ACA’s coverage standards both on and off the new insurance marketplace.