Tag: consumers

Third-Party Administrators – The Middlemen Of Self-Funded Health Insurance

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Pharmacy benefit managers have received significant public attention for their exploitative, cost increasing practices, but similar practices of third-party administrators (TPAs) have received relatively little public attention. In their latest piece for Health Affairs Forefront, Karen Handorf, Christine Monahan, and Kennah Watts argue that understanding TPA business models and how they generate profits requires looking under the hood at their agreements with health care providers and other third-party intermediaries.

Considerations for Federal Agencies Tasked with Improving Health Plan Price Transparency Data

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While the health plan price transparency data available under current guidance and enforcement have proven challenging to access and use, a renewed focus under the Trump administration aims to improve Transparency in Coverage (TiC) data. In this blog, CHIR experts Stacey Pogue and Nadia Stovicek present insights into known issues with TiC machine-readable files, a recent executive order’s implications, and the issues that limit access to publicly available TiC data.

Health Insurance Transitions For Young People With Diabetes Can Be Life Threatening

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As Congress debates policies that would disenroll millions of people from both Medicaid and marketplace coverage, young adults living with diabetes could face coverage losses and challenges finding private insurance that is both comprehensive and affordable. In their latest piece for Health Affairs, Amy Killelea and Christine Monahan explore how variations in health insurance coverage can make health coverage transitions difficult for these young adults.

Death by Slow Strangulation: New Tactics in Longstanding Efforts to Repeal the Affordable Care Act 

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The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to take up legislation that, if enacted, would be tantamount to a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for millions of Americans who will lose their health insurance, and for millions more who will be required to submit to red tape and higher costs to retain their coverage. CHIR experts Sabrina Corlette, Karen Davenport, and Stacey Pogue dive into what the bill includes and what it means for the 24 million Americans who are covered through the ACA Marketplaces.

March Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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In March, we anticipated sunshine and warmer days while keeping up with the latest health policy research. We read about marketplace plan deductibles, physician turnover in private-equity acquired practices, and estimated savings from prescription drug rebates.

New Executive Order Outlines Next Steps For Health Care Price Transparency

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In February, the Trump administration issued an executive order outlining steps for federal agencies to promote healthcare price transparency for patients, employers, and policymakers. In her latest piece for Health Affairs, Stacey Pogue explores how this executive order could improve areas where healthcare price transparency has historically faced challenges.

A blast from the past: Dusting off ACA Section 1333 compacts

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Peter Nelson, the new director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) has brought a long forgotten ACA provision back into the spotlight. CHIR’s Stacey Pogue breaks down Section 1333 compacts, what it would mean for consumers, and concerns for implementation.

February Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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In February we stayed out of the cold and bundled up with the latest in health policy research. We read about salary and utilization changes in hospitals acquired by private equity, challenges with price transparency requirements, and changes to hospital community benefit rules in Oregon.

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.