…plans. But the President and congressional leaders have pledged to change or repeal the EHB requirements through future regulatory or legislative action. Most ACA replacement proposals eliminate the EHB and have little to no federal benefit requirements. In a new article published on The Commonwealth Fund’s To The Point site, CHIR experts Dania Palanker, JoAnn Volk, and Justin Giovannelli look…
The week of March 6 was a busy one in the world of health care policy. On the Hill, legislation partially repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and restructuring Medicaid was passed by two key House committees (H.R. the “American Health Care Act” or AHCA). At the Department of Health & Human Services, officials began reviewing almost 4,000 comments on…
…change plans, and limiting eligibility and exception circumstances, among other restrictions. In light of the compressed timeframe insurers face to finalize rates for 2018, the public had only 20 days to comment on the proposals before HHS considers stakeholder input and releases a final rule. When the comment period closed at 11:59pm on March 7, 3,938 comments had been submitted…
…42 percent. After the reinsurance program was enacted, they only increased by 7.3 percent. Further, actuarial experts estimate that 2018 rates will be 20 percent lower with the reinsurance program compared to rates without the program. High-risk pools separate individuals with high medical claims into a different risk pool from the rest of the individual market. Insurers would no longer…
…aided by unnamed investors from the Maryland healthcare community. The company then had to exit the individual market exchange in December, pending approval from CMS. This resulted in a loss of 10,000 members to competing insurers. Their current 26,000 member population is drawn from the employer group market, with most coming from small businesses. Evergreen executives say that the transition…
…state in which the company is headquartered conducts its own audits; Reviewing proposed premium increases; and Ensuring an internal review and response to consumer complaints. The bills also impede a state’s ability to protect residents if and when problems arise, limiting the department of insurance’s ability to investigate complaints and pursue a remedy on behalf of the consumer. For problems…
…new policies have worked to provide small businesses with increased choice, while promoting comprehensive benefit packages and protecting business owners and their employees from discrimination. Today, small businesses are beginning to reap the benefits of these reforms, witnessing an unprecedented slowdown in healthcare cost growth and smaller rate increases compared to the individual market. The law helped to reduce “job…
…result of “insurers, consumers, and the country” working towards a new, more equitable system. Whether or not they wanted to repeal the ACA, across the board, panelists and speakers advocated for change. Stephanie Carleton from McKinsey & Company lamented that, for many middle-class Americans, premiums are half of a mortgage payment. Brian Webb of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners…
…to care. One area marketplaces have sought to improve is the shopping experience. Health insurance is complicated; many people have difficulty understanding and applying key insurance concepts. The complexities are compounded when individuals must weigh the features of competing plans—a task most people dread and do not do well. To support better enrollment decisions, most marketplace websites offer a tool…
…exams to assess compliance with MHPAEA. States identified the collection and tracking of consumer complaints as an important component of their compliance efforts. Some are taking a broad view of mental health parity enforcement. One state DOI reviews multiple plan features when determining whether parity is being achieved. For example, state regulators examine reimbursement rates for mental health services, claims…
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