The latest dust up in Washington is a fight between the Obama Administration and employer groups over the ACA provision that limits consumers’ annual out-of-pocket costs. JoAnn Volk looks at what the issue means for employers and consumers.
Last week CHIR’s JoAnn Volk served as a panelist on an Alliance for Health Reform briefing about empowering health insurance consumers to shop for the best value and use their coverage wisely. She shares highlights of the briefing here.
The Affordable Care Act’s Summary of Benefits and Coverage – standardized, easy-to-use summaries of health plan benefits got an update last week with new regulations out from the Obama Administration. CHIR’s JoAnn Volk provides an overview – as well as a preview of some likely additional upgrades.
Did you know states need to select their Essential Health Benefits (EHB) benchmark plan for 2017 in just a few weeks? If not, JoAnn Volk will tell you about the process underway and how advocates can get involved.
Beginning this week, a new version of the change in income special enrollment period will take effect, providing a pathway to premium tax credits for some caught in the Medicaid coverage gap. JoAnn Volk provides an update on this “new and improved” SEP.
The NAIC Spring meeting tackled a number of ACA implementation issues important to consumers. JoAnn Volk shares some highlights from the meeting.
The current tax filing season, for the 2014 tax year, is the first in which consumers will need to indicate whether or not they had coverage in 2014, or face a potential tax penalty for failure to have coverage throughout the year. JoAnn Volk takes a look at the affordability exemption and what consumers need to know.
Your employer may want to help you meet your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight or get fit by providing you with some financial incentives. JoAnn Volk takes a look at the current state of workplace wellness programs and recent action at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
This week, CHIR is releasing an online version of the Navigator Resource Guide, with close to 300 searchable FAQs and easy-to-read background information on key health insurance and marketplace issues. Although designed with the needs of Navigators in mind, the Guide is a hands-on, practical resource for anyone who needs to communicate with consumers about the Affordable Care Act.
Georgetown University experts from the Center on Health Insurance Reforms and the Center for Children and Families released this week a report documenting the experiences over the past year working with Navigators, Certified Application Counselors, and others working to enroll consumers in the health insurance marketplaces. JoAnn Volk, Sandy Ahn, Sabrina Corlette and Tricia Brooks share lessons learned and recommendations for future enrollments in a comprehensive report and two video clips.
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.
