During the past few months, CHIR faculty have examined the proliferation of narrow provider networks associated with plans on the health insurance marketplaces. Here, Sally McCarty discusses lessons learned and potential solutions offered by two faculty work products.
Last week, on the day that 115,000 people who bought coverage in the federal marketplace lost that coverage, the National Immigration Law Center filed complaints with HHS’s Office for Civil Rights alleging that the federally facilitated marketplace violated civil rights law and the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination provisions. Our colleague at Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Sonya Schwartz, analyzes the concerns that underlie these filings.
A new report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation chronicles the challenges, innovations and lessons learned about the needs of consumers for assistance in accessing and using health coverage options under the Affordable Care Act. Our partner in our Navigator technical assistance project, the Georgetown Center for Children and Families’ Tricia Brooks, has this overview.
Local press in D.C. recently reported on a “turf battle” between the health insurance marketplace and DC’s Department of Insurance over the review of proposed rate increases. But their roles are more complementary than conflicting. Sabrina Corlette examines how the Affordable Care Act envisions the marketplaces and state insurance departments working together to help consumers obtain better, more affordable health insurance.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to improve access to health insurance coverage for small-business employees by creating a Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Marketplace in every state. One key feature of SHOP Marketplaces is employee choice whereby employees can select among multiple insurers and plans for health insurance coverage that best suits their needs. CHIR’s Sarah Dash and Kevin Lucia review how SHOPs are implementing employee choice in a new Health Policy Brief published by Health Affairs.
A major insurance company in Minnesota recently announced it would withdraw from the state’s health insurance marketplace. What does this decision mean for the marketplace and the consumers it serves? Sabrina Corlette offers up her take.
A recent Urban Institute study found that over half (57 percent) of uninsured parents are Hispanic. Our colleague from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, Sonya Schwartz, discusses some of the factors that limit the accessibility of coverage for Hispanic and Spanish-speaking individuals, and offers strategies to fix the problems.
Last week the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published final rules for the health insurance marketplaces and participating insurers to renew consumers into coverage for 2015. Our colleague from Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Tricia Brooks, discusses what the rule means for consumers and their families.
While open enrollment is less than three months away, consumer assisters will have to do more with less. Resources will be limited, even though the Congressional Budget Office projects more than 5 million more people will enroll through a marketplace. CHIR’s Sandy Ahn examines support from the state and federal marketplaces for consumer assistance funding.
While most state-based marketplaces in 2014 are rightly focused on the operational challenges of connecting people with coverage, over time technical improvements will allow them to prioritize providing better quality, more cost-effective care to enrollees. CHIR experts Sabrina Corlette and Sarah Dash, in their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, discuss the opportunities and challenges for states working to implement the ACA’s quality improvement initiatives.
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.
