The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General recently examined the progress of the new Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OPs), created under the ACA. Their report shows that the CO-OPs are mostly meeting key milestones, but also face some tough challenges. Sabrina Corlette takes a closer look.
Today, CHIR released a new report exploring how private insurers and state regulators are incorporating and enforcing new nondiscrimination standards under the Affordable Care Act. Katie Keith, one of the report’s authors, has highlights from the report and discusses what the findings mean for these new protections.
Health insurance is a complicated product that consumers have difficulty understanding, a common theme throughout Wednesday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on “The Power of Transparency: Giving Consumers the Information They Need to Make Smart Choices in the Health Insurance Market.” Fortunately, new tools are already available to help consumers shop for and compare coverage, and more will become available as Affordable Care Act implementation continues to roll out.
Last week the Administration released its final rule implementing the ACA's insurance market reforms. Many of these provisions have generated deserved attention for the important protections they'll bring to consumers. Getting less attention, but just as important, are the rule's rate review provisions. Sabrina Corlette takes a look.
The Administration released its final regulation on the Affordable Care Act's requirement that plans cover a minimum set of essential health benefits. Sabrina Corlette took a peek and examines the pluses – and minuses – for consumers.
Next year’s premiums for individual market plans will be way down in New York thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Christine Monahan discusses how a competitive exchange and the individual mandate will provide relief to cash-strapped New Yorkers.
In comments to federal regulators on recent proposed rules, the NAIC added its voice to the chorus of stakeholders who have weighed in on some of the Affordable Care Act’s most significant protections. Katie Keith has highlights from the NAIC's four comment letters on the 2014 market reforms, essential health benefits, multi-state plans, and the rate review template.
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.
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.
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.
