It was another hot summer Friday for regulations with the release of the final rule on navigator and non-navigator assisters (aka in-person assisters) and Exchange-based certified application counselors (CACs). Our colleague with Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Tricia Brooks, dives in on what the rules mean for consumers.
With just under nine months to go until the open enrollment season begins on October 1, 2013, polls show that the general public is still largely unaware of the main provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Sarah Dash takes a look at the new Health Insurance Marketplace website unveiled by HHS to educate the public about health insurance exchanges.
On Thursday the U.S. Senate Finance Committee held a hearing to examine implementation of the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges. CHIR's Allison Johnson and Sarah Dash were there and report back in this blog.
In a new report for The Commonwealth Fund, Sarah Dash, Kevin Lucia, Katie Keith, and Christine Monahan provide a comprehensive look at the critical design decisions made by 17 states and the District of Columbia that chose to establish a state-based exchange for 2014. Sarah Dash has highlights from the report and discusses what the findings mean for stakeholders.
The Office of Personnel Management recently issued a final rule on the multi-state plan program in which it attempts to standardize contracting processes and state rules to, in theory, make it easier for insurers to enter new markets while limiting the extent to which multi-state plan issuers can bypass state consumer protections and preserving a level playing field in exchanges. Christine Monahan discusses how OPM has attempted to balance these competing pressures and discusses where multi-state plans may or may not have flexibility.
Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, the roles of states and the federal government in establishing health insurance exchanges—marketplaces where people can shop for comprehensive and affordable health plans—have evolved considerably. In a post that originally appeared on The Commonwealth Fund Blog, Sarah Dash, Christine Monahan, and Kevin Lucia describe where exchange establishment decisions currently stand.
Amid debate about the cost of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, our colleague at Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Joe Touschner, helps us understand how the law’s premium tax credits will make coverage more affordable for millions of consumers. In this blog he shares some recently released resources that help simplify this complex topic.
Whether or not small employers will begin self-funding in greater numbers as the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented continues to be a hot topic. In the midst of significant media attention, Christine Monahan looks at two states that have decided to take action.
Of the many consumer protection tools available to health insurance regulators, one of the most powerful is the ability to review premium rates. Yet, some states have made recent decisions to abdicate this authority to federal regulators. Sally McCarty discusses recently enacted legislation in Florida that suspends the state’s rate review requirements – and what it means for insurers, regulators, and consumers.
The state-based and federally facilitated marketplaces have been busy recruiting and selecting navigators, and now attention turns to training and support. In this guest blog from our Center for Children and Families colleague Tricia Brooks, she makes the case for a robust, holistic approach to building, supporting, and sustaining a high-functioning network of assisters that can ensure consumers needs are fully met.
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.
