Tag: narrow networks

November Research Round Up: What We’re Reading

This month, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe dug into studies on health care financing equity, insurer and consumer participation in the individual market, consumer plan decision-making, and access to specialty providers.

August Research Round Up: What We’re Reading

Summer is over, but health policy researchers have hardly taken a vacation. In August’s research round up, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe looks into studies examining specialty drug coverage across commercial plans, the effects of the Affordable Care Act on people of different income levels, individual market premium predictions, employer-sponsored high-deductible health plans, and surprise medical bills in employer-sponsored insurance.

Health Plan Narrow Networks: Highlighting Transparency Deficiencies for Consumers

A recent conference hosted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on health system transparency allowed a diverse group of stakeholders – state and federal regulators, an insurance industry executive, a provider, and CHIR’s own Sabrina Corlette to discuss how the emergence of narrow provider networks on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces has spotlighted deficiencies in the information available for consumers to make good plan choices. Sabrina Corlette shares some of the issues debated and discussed.

CHIR Launches First in Video Series: Coffee Conversations on Timely Health Insurance Topics

We at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms are excited to share the first of an upcoming video series on timely health insurance topics. In our debut video, CHIR experts Sabrina Corlette, JoAnn Volk, and Dave Cusano provide a preview of upcoming action at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) national meeting to address concerns about network adequacy of health plans offered through the new health insurance Marketplaces.

Changing Provider Networks In Marketplace Health Plans: Balancing Affordability And Access To Quality Care

While narrow provider networks are by no means new to health insurance, the practice has received renewed attention as plans participating in the marketplaces turn to network design to keep premium costs low. While consumers benefit from more affordable insurance, overly narrow networks can risk the quality of care consumers receive and increase their out-of-pocket costs. In this blog post originally published by Health Affairs, CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and JoAnn Volk and the Urban Institute’s Robert Berenson and Judy Feder discuss the cost-access trade-offs for consumers and offer a few recommendations for policymakers.

More New Resources Available to State Regulators

A set of new tools for state insurance regulators, as well as updated versions of some older resources, have recently been posted on the Robert Wood Johnson State Health Reform Assistance Network (State Network) web site. CHIR faculty Sally McCarty, David Cusano, and Max Farris, who serve as technical assistance professionals (TAPS) in the State Network Program, developed the new resources. Sally McCarty describes them here and provides information about an upcoming Webinar to introduce them and demonstrate their use.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual blog post authors and do not represent the views of Georgetown University, the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, any organization that the author is affiliated with, or the opinions of any other author who publishes on this blog.