Air ambulances are the source of some of the largest unexpected medical bills faced by consumers. Before it passed the No Surprises Act, Congress created an advisory committee on air ambulance billing practices. CHIR’s Madeline O’Brien and JoAnn Volk take a look at this committee’s work and what it might mean for future federal policymaking.
July’s latest health policy research is provided by CHIR’s Nia Gooding in our monthly roundup. She reviews studies on health equity and health plan benefit design, 2022 insurer rate filings, and employer market power in hospital price negotiations.
CHIR researchers have teamed up once again with the Urban Institute to assess how federal policy is affecting the market for small business health insurance. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic was front-of-mind, but so too are coverage options exempt from the Affordable Care Act and newly available incentives to shift employees to the individual market.
The federal government is moving forward with standardized benefit designs via HealthCare.gov, following in the footsteps of several states. In their latest post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR experts Justin Giovannelli, Rachel Schwab, and Kevin Lucia assess the experience of these states with standardized plans and draw lessons for federal officials.
In recent months, Washington, Colorado, and Nevada, have enacted public option-style laws aimed at containing costs and increasing access to health insurance coverage. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts Christine Monahan, Kevin Lucia, and Justin Giovannelli examine these efforts and their implications for federal and state policymakers.
As Congress considers a variety of proposals to address prescription drug prices, there is a growing trend of states capping the out of pocket costs for insulin. CHIR’s Megan Houston considers the impact of insulin copay caps and how states are limited in their efforts to tackle prescription drug prices.
The Biden administration has issued the first in a series of rules to implement the No Surprises Act, a sweeping law to protect patients from unexpected out-of-network medical bills. In their latest post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR’s Jack Hoadley and Kevin Lucia review the new rules and their implications for consumers.
For June’s monthly roundup of health policy research, Nia Gooding reviewed studies on ground ambulance rides and surprise medical bills, the ways health plan pricing mechanisms affect health disparities, and the impact of using auto-enrollment to achieve universal coverage.
Starting July 1, those who faced a job loss in 2021 may be eligible for extra financial assistance on the marketplace. CHIR’s Megan Houston breaks down this provision of the American Rescue Plan and how consumers can access these benefits.
When Congress enacted the “No Surprises Act” last year to ban unexpected out-of-network medical bills, it was left to the Biden administration to implement these historic consumer protections. CHIR’s Katie Keith, Jack Hoadley, and Kevin Lucia provide a detailed summary of the first round of federal rules flowing from this new law in their latest post for the Health Affairs blog.
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.
