The U.S. Congress enacted the No Surprises Act in 2020 to protect patients from surprise out-of-network medical bills. Now the federal agencies need to set up a process to resolve disputes between these providers and insurance companies. CHIR experts examine the experience in four states with similar dispute resolution programs and share lessons that can be applied at the national level.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provides the largest expansion of public and private health insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010. CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and the Georgetown Center for Children & Families’ Edwin Park break down its key provisions in a new explainer.
An executive order from President Biden is likely to prompt a review of Trump administration rules encouraging association health plans (AHPs) exempt from critical Affordable Care Act protections. CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and Kevin Lucia assess what’s at stake and share thoughts on optimal federal policy going forward.
One of President Biden’s first executive actions was to require the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to withdraw regulations governing workplace wellness programs. CHIR’s Julie Zuckerbrod considers how these programs can exacerbate racial and ethnic inequities in health care access and outcomes, and opportunities for the Biden administration to advance equity-focused regulations.
The Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces provide a critical source of coverage and financial assistance. Federal actions under the Trump administration undermined the marketplaces, but the new administration and Congress have opportunities to implement and advocate for policies that strengthen state-based marketplaces (SBMs). In a new issue brief for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts assessed how federal policy decisions have impacted SBMs and the consumers they serve by interviewing directors and officials from 17 marketplaces.
President Biden has issued an Executive Order likely to expand the mandate for private insurers to cover, and waive cost-sharing, for COVID-19 testing. However, the Brookings Institution’s Loren Adler and Sabrina Corlette argue in a new blog post for Health Affairs that Congress will also need to act to ensure that the mandate doesn’t encourage price gouging by providers, and to fully eliminate cost barriers to universal testing.
With the approval of the Trump administration, the state of Georgia is poised to upend the Affordable Care Act, abandon HealthCare.gov, and place the coverage of hundreds of thousands of Georgians at risk. In their latest post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR’s Justin Giovannelli, JoAnn Volk, and Kevin Lucia evaluate the potential impact of Georgia’s proposed reforms, should they be implemented.
President Joe Biden directed his administration to reopen the federal health insurance marketplace, an action the Trump administration refused to take last year after the COVID-19 pandemic struck due to adverse selection concerns. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts discuss how states that created a broad special enrollment period (SEP) for the uninsured in response to the pandemic – and broadcast the opportunity through outreach efforts – saw an increase in younger enrollees, seemingly contradicting claims that reducing SEP barriers inevitably leads to adverse selection.
In the waning days of 2020, Congress enacted the No Surprises Act, which provides, for the first time, protections for consumers against surprise bills from out-of-network medical providers. The legislation has numerous implications for states that have their own balance billing protections, as well as for those that do not. In their latest Expert Perspective article for the State Health & Value Strategies program, JoAnn Volk and Sabrina Corlette review some of the more critical issues state regulators will need to consider as this new federal law is implemented.
Congress included the No Surprises Act in the omnibus spending bill that was passed and signed into law by President Trump on December 27, 2020. The bill protects patients from unexpected bills for out-of-network emergency and other services consumers are unable to agree to in advance. Georgetown experts Jack Hoadley, Katie Keith, and Kevin Lucia unpack the legislation in a blog post for Health Affairs.
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.
