Tag: certified application counselors

Rookie Report: How did New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Marketplaces Fare in Their Inaugural Enrollment Period?

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After seven enrollment cycles on HealthCare.gov, New Jersey and Pennsylvania both launched new state marketplace websites in time for the latest Open Enrollment Period. Both states saw increases in marketplace enrollment over previous years. To understand how this transition went for Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents, and to extract potential lessons for the states that are transitioning to running their own marketplaces, we sought insight from people on the ground: consumer assisters.

March Research Round Up: What We’re Reading

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Spring has arrived, and the research is blooming! This March, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe was buzzing around studies on direct enrollment, balance billing from air ambulance rides, affordability for middle-income consumers, and the roles of assisters and support tools.

Affordable Care Act Navigators: Unexpected Success During 2018 Enrollment Season Shouldn’t Obscure Challenges Ahead

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Heading into open enrollment for 2018 marketplace coverage, experts predicted far fewer people would sign up for coverage. Despite the obstacles working against a successful open enrollment, sign-ups came close to last year’s tally: federally facilitated marketplaces (FFMs) logged 8.8 million plan selections, including close to 2.5 million new consumers, by the close of open enrollment on December 15th, nearing the 9.2 million plan selection from the previous year in just half the time. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe and JoAnn Volk take a look at what explains the better-than-expected results.

Enrolling in Health Insurance is Complicated. That’s Where Navigators Can Help.

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With the close of Open Enrollment for federally run marketplaces last week, preliminary reports suggest this year’s total sign-ups will be fewer than prior years. The Administration also recently released data that calls into question the value of Navigators, noting that they accounted for less than 1 percent of customers who were signed up by federally funded navigator organizations in 2016. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe explains how these data fail to tell the whole story.

Kaiser Family Foundation Survey on Assister Programs Reflects Signs of Progress – and Opportunities for Improvement

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Assister programs and brokers play an integral role of navigating consumers through the marketplace enrollment process. Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent survey of these stakeholders indicates these programs will continue to be needed given the knowledge gaps that still exist among consumers and the high proportion of consumers who seek help with renewal. Current legal intern and guest blogger, Emma Chapman (Georgetown JD/MPP, expected 2018), summarizes the main findings of the survey.

Missouri’s Health Reform Assisters Triumph In Court

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Health reform advocates experienced a win last month, when a federal court in Missouri struck down three sections of a state law that interfered with the ability of health insurance navigators and other in-person assisters to help consumers understand and enroll in new coverage options. CHIR’s own Emily Curran reviewed the court’s decision and provides some takeaways.

Updated Navigator Resource Guide

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CHIR is pleased to release an updated online Navigator Guide on Private Health Insurance and Health Insurance Marketplaces with searchable frequently asked questions (FAQs) and easy-to-read background information on key health insurance and marketplace issues. With Open Enrollment just a few days away, get your Guide on!

CMS Awards $67 Million to Assist Consumers with Accessing Coverage OE3 and Beyond

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Last week the federal agency responsible for implementing the Affordable Care Act awarded $67 million in grants to state and local organizations to serve as marketplace navigators. These groups will conduct outreach to consumers and help them enroll in affordable coverage options. Our colleague Tricia Brooks blogs about why navigators are so important and previews some critical future announcements.

Our Heartfelt Thanks to Affordable Care Act Navigators and Assisters – and a New Resource

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We’ve wrapped up the Affordable Care Act’s second open enrollment season and sign-ups exceeded expectations, in large part thanks to the hard work of navigators and assisters. As part of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded project, navigators in five states send us their toughest and most complicated cases. To help others facing similar issues, we’ve created a new compilation of our most frequently asked questions during open enrollment. The Georgetown technical assistance team shares it here.

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.