Narrow network plans were common on the health insurance marketplaces in 2014. In a new issue brief for The Commonwealth Fund, CHIR researchers examine the standards states had in place to regulate plans’ provider networks in the first year of marketplace coverage and describe how states revisited their rules for year two.
The recent financial troubles of some CO-OP plans created under the Affordable Care Act have sparked questions about the long-term viability of the program. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts Sabrina Corlette, Kevin Lucia, Justin Giovannelli and Sean Miskell assess the current status of the CO-OP program, challenges to success, and prospects for the future.
Special enrollment is available to individuals who experience qualifying events allowing them to enroll into marketplace coverage. A new issue brief co-authored by CHIR’s Sandy Ahn and Kevin Lucia, along with authors from the Urban Institute, found that special enrollment systems and procedures were still a work in progress in five state-based marketplaces last year. Sandy and Kevin also discuss additional SEPs available this year.
The media furor over health plan cancellations in the wake of the Affordable Care Act has died down, in part because federal and state rules now allow insurers to maintain their noncompliant policies until 2017. However, some insurers are choosing to discontinue them. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, Kevin Lucia, Sabrina Corlette, and Ashley Williams examine the policy and business incentives driving health plan cancellations.
Two state insurance regulators, Florida and Montana, have taken recent regulatory action to address concerns raised by advocacy groups about the way specialty drugs are covered in pharmacy benefit plans offered in their states. Sally McCarty provides details of those actions and related updates on the oversight of discriminatory benefit designs.
Auto-renewal through the health insurance marketplaces is an important mechanism for consumers to avoid a gap in coverage, but variations in state and federal approaches could impact consumers’ premiums and tax credits. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts compare the renewal processes chosen by 17 state-based marketplaces and assess their impact on consumers’ finances.
One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act is to make health insurance more affordable and accessible, in part by increasing health plan competition. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR faculty Sean Miskell, Kevin Lucia and Justin Giovannelli find that competition is in fact increasing, and consumers shopping on the state-based marketplaces have more choices among insurers than they did last year.
The consumer representatives to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) released a report this week on state approaches to regulating and monitoring the adequacy of health plan provider networks. Sabrina Corlette provides this overview.
While the Affordable Care Act provided significant start-up funds for the development of the new health insurance marketplaces, by January 1, 2015 all the state-based marketplaces must be self-sustaining. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts Sarah Dash, Kevin Lucia, Justin Giovannelli and Sean Miskell provide an update on states’ approaches to marketplace financing and sustainability.
As the health insurance marketplaces prepare for the second year of operation under the Affordable Care Act, IT issues are driving many states’ decisions on whether to operate a state-based marketplace. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts Sarah Dash and Kevin Lucia share findings on state IT transitions and major policy actions going into 2015.
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.
