Beginning in 2023, CMS will require QHP provider networks for plans sold on the federal marketplace to meet minimum time-and-distance standards and, beginning in 2024, minimum standards for appointment wait times. CHIR joined with colleagues at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families to examine the new marketplace network adequacy standards and how they compare to Medicaid’s standards.
Colorado is moving quickly to set the rules for state public option-style plans, ahead of their launch in the 2023 plan year. CHIR’s Christine Monahan discusses recent rulemaking on “Colorado Option” premium reduction targets and the state’s Section 1332 Waiver Amendment Application.
The Biden administration is advancing new standards and policies for the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces, including tougher network adequacy oversight, standardized benefit designs, and new requirements for insurance brokers. In her latest Expert Perspective for the State Health & Value Strategies project, CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette reviews provisions that have particular import for state marketplaces and insurance regulators.
Several insurers have eliminated broker commissions for mid-year marketplace enrollment. In a new Expert Perspective for the State Health & Value Strategies project, CHIR’s Justin Giovannelli looks at the consequences of cutting broker commissions for special enrollment periods, including risk of coverage losses, market instability, and potential violations of federal nondiscrimination rules.
A leaked draft of an impending Supreme Court decision has previewed the potential for states to prohibit and even criminalize abortion. Access to abortion has long been a story of the haves and have-nots. Medication abortion can improve access to this basic health care service, but the delivery and coverage of medication abortion are subject to numerous restrictions and requirements, creating multi-faceted obstacles for patients seeking care. CHIR’s Rachel Schwab looks at several policy actions that can reduce barriers to medication abortion.
With the generous support of Arnold Ventures, CHIR experts have launched a new resource center and newsletter to provide policymakers with a dedicated, independent source of unbiased and comprehensive information on public health insurance options and related proposals that promote affordability and contain costs. Find out more.
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) led to historic reductions in racial and ethnic disparities related to health insurance coverage. However, equal access to health coverage is not enough to ensure health equity. In their latest issue brief for the Commonwealth Fund, Dania Palanker and Nia Denise Gooding examine how four state-based health insurance marketplaces have acted to reduce health inequity, and outline considerations for other state-based marketplaces developing a health equity strategy.
The need for mental health and substance use disorder services is substantial and growing. One in five adults in the United States, or 53 million people, had a mental illness in 2020, including 14 million adults who had serious mental illness; forty million adults had a substance use disorder. In response to these troubling trends, policymakers are seeking multi-pronged approaches to provide greater access to services that treat and manage mental health and substance use disorders. CHIR’s JoAnn Volk outlines how both Congress and the Biden administration plan to improve access to behavioral health care.
April brought us a shower of health policy research, including studies on the implications of the American Rescue Plan Act’s (ARP) enhanced premium tax credits (PTCs) expiring for marketplace beneficiaries, how value-based payment models have fared in the commercial health insurance market, and trends in prices that private health plans pay for hospital care across the United States. We took some time away from checking out the cherry blossoms to dig in.
Last month the Texas Department of Insurance issued a consent order dissolving Texas-based Triada Assurance Holdings, operating under the name Salvasen Health, which marketed and sold their fixed indemnity plans to 65,000 consumers nationwide, advertising their products as comprehensive coverage. CHIR’s Madeline O’Brien looks at is Salvasen’s deceptive practices and state responses to mitigate harm to consumers.
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.
