In our most recent issue brief for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR researchers studied the progress states have made to date in implementing the 2014 market reforms and found that most states have yet to move forward with changes they need. Katie Keith discusses the actions that states have taken so far and what our findings mean for federal and state regulators as they implement the Affordable Care Act.
The Office of Personnel Management recently issued a final rule on the multi-state plan program in which it attempts to standardize contracting processes and state rules to, in theory, make it easier for insurers to enter new markets while limiting the extent to which multi-state plan issuers can bypass state consumer protections and preserving a level playing field in exchanges. Christine Monahan discusses how OPM has attempted to balance these competing pressures and discusses where multi-state plans may or may not have flexibility.
Last week CMS released a set of instructions to insurance companies seeking to sell plans in the federally facilitated exchanges. Sabrina Corlette took a look at some of the details and provides some of the plan management highlights.
Sabrina Corlette and Christine Monahan have co-authored an article in today's Health Affairs, “State Insurance Exchanges Face Challenges In Offering Standardized Choices Alongside Innovative Value-Based Insurance.” Sabrina Corlette provides an overview.
The health insurance provisions of the Affordable Care Act were largely off the table in the recent negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff – with one exception. CHIRblogger Sabrina Corlette takes a look.
HHS recently issued a new set of frequently asked questions designed to address some issues that have been raised by the coverage of preventive services under the Affordable Care Act. Kevin Lucia takes a look at the guidance in the context of screening colonoscopy and discusses how it adds up in light of a recent CHIR report that explored how private insurers are applying cost-sharing for colorectal cancer screening.
The Administration says it wants young and healthy people to enroll in the new health insurance exchanges. Why then did they just shut a lot of young and healthy people out? Sabrina Corlette examines yesterday’s decision to effectively bar students enrolled in self-funded college or university health plans from the exchanges.
On Sunday, June 23, there will be 100 days before the launch of the new insurance exchanges under the ACA. A new report by Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms and colleagues at the Health Policy Institute draws lessons from the recent launch of the Medicare prescription drug program to put the challenges facing the ACA roll out into context.
Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, the roles of states and the federal government in establishing health insurance exchanges—marketplaces where people can shop for comprehensive and affordable health plans—have evolved considerably. In a post that originally appeared on The Commonwealth Fund Blog, Sarah Dash, Christine Monahan, and Kevin Lucia describe where exchange establishment decisions currently stand.
Amid debate about the cost of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, our colleague at Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Joe Touschner, helps us understand how the law’s premium tax credits will make coverage more affordable for millions of consumers. In this blog he shares some recently released resources that help simplify this complex topic.
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.
