While Old Man Winter barrels down on us with cold and snow, what better time to get your documents together for tax filing season? For marketplace consumers, you’ll need a couple of documents to file your tax return. CHIR’s Sandy Ahn provides some information on what you’ll need.
Last week, updated federal poverty levels were published in the federal register. Our colleague Tricia Brooks of Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families discusses the implications for consumers in the health insurance marketplaces, Medicaid, and CHIP.
The administration recently published the results of its compliance review of health plans participating in federally facilitated marketplaces. The review, however, focused more on process, such as whether plans have the appropriate policies and procedures in place. While this information is somewhat helpful, CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and Sandy Ahn discuss why these types of compliance reviews fall short of helping regulators assess whether plans are meeting the ACA’s patient protection standards.
For the most part, the ACA tries to align the ways that Medicaid and the health insurance marketplaces determine eligibility for their respective programs. But every once in a while, there’s a risk that someone might fall through the cracks. This initially appeared to be the case when our colleague Tricia Brooks was asked to help with a complex family situation in which a child seemed to be caught between the differences between each program’s rules, putting him at risk of being uninsured. Fortunately, Tricia was able to unearth a little known but important rule that helps kids get the coverage they’re entitled to.
The administration recently issued guidance clarifying marketplace residency requirements and the special enrollment period (SEP) that’s available when someone moves. CHIR’s Sandy Ahn summarizes the guidance and what it means for consumers who are moving and need new health coverage.
In the wake of the high-profile closures and departures of some health plans from the individual market, a close analysis of plan participation in the state-based marketplaces demonstrates that consumer choices remain relatively stable. In CHIR’s latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, Emily Curran, Justin Giovannelli and Kevin Lucia assess insurers’ participation in the state-run marketplaces and the policy levers in place to help foster competition.
Welcome to 2016. With first votes being cast in the 2016 election cycle less than two weeks away and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) promising to unveil an ACA replacement plan to steer the 2016 party agenda, the policy debate on health reform is far from over. We here at CHIR are keeping an eye on reform proposals, and in this post, CHIR’s Hannah Ellison examines various proposals to improve affordability of coverage under the ACA.
With open enrollment set to close in two week, enroll now before or on January 15 to get coverage by February 1. As the clock ticks towards the end of January and the close of open enrollment, CHIR’s Sandy Ahn provides some reminders and references the Navigator Guide, your resource on eligibility, enrollment, and health insurance coverage.
The failure of 12 of the Affordable Care Act’s CO-OP plans reveals much about the huge barriers facing new companies entering the highly concentrated health insurance market. Sabrina Corlette takes a look at some of the lessons that policymakers – and regulators with oversight over the proposed mergers in the health insurance industry – can draw from the CO-OPs’ experiences.
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found very high rates of depression among medical students. Georgetown medical student Josh Barrett takes a look at the implications for physician training and patient care, as well as the role of health insurers and health systems in supporting physicians’ mental health.
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.
