Tag: federally facilitated marketplace

Critiquing the Performance as the Curtain Closes on OE2

The second open enrollment period (often called OE2) under the Affordable Care Act has come to its formal close. Our colleague at Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Tricia Brooks, provides her review of OE2 – and some tips on how the marketplaces could improve their performance for next year.

The Affordable Care Act’s Requirements for Quality Improvement in the Health Insurance Marketplaces: What Recent Federal Action Tells Us

The Affordable Care Act sets out several requirements for the health insurance marketplaces to encourage insurers to improve quality and deliver better value coverage. Implementation of these provisions has been slowed by the focus on other, more urgent operational priorities, but recent federal rules put plans on notice that quality improvement standards, reporting requirements, and rankings are soon coming their way. Sabrina Corlette has this overview.

Marketplace Coverage Renewals: Variation in State Approaches May Affect Consumers’ Finances

Auto-renewal through the health insurance marketplaces is an important mechanism for consumers to avoid a gap in coverage, but variations in state and federal approaches could impact consumers’ premiums and tax credits. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts compare the renewal processes chosen by 17 state-based marketplaces and assess their impact on consumers’ finances.

New Guidance on Re-enrollment in the Federally Facilitated Marketplace

On December 1, CMS published new guidance on the re-enrollment process for the federally facilitated marketplace. While the guidance is targeted to participating insurance companies, it contains information that is also important to Navigators and others assisting consumers through the re-enrollment process. Sabrina Corlette provides a few key takeaways.

New Content for the Navigator Resource Guide: Get Ready for Renewals

Last month CHIR released its Navigator Resource Guide, with background and close to 300 frequently asked questions on key health insurance issues. The Guide now has new content to help consumers navigate the renewal process for 2015. Sabrina Corlette shares some of the highlights.

Consumers Should Resist the Urge to Do Nothing and Renew Coverage through the Federal Marketplace

Saturday, November 15th marks the start of open enrollment in the ACA’s health insurance marketplaces. Of the 9.9 million that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services projects will enroll into 2015 coverage, over 7 million of them are current enrollees who need to have their coverage renewed. In a new issue brief, our Center for Children and Families colleague, Tricia Brooks, outlines what the renewal and eligibility re-determination process is likely to look like for those in the federally facilitated marketplaces.

State Marketplace Approaches to Financing and Sustainability

While the Affordable Care Act provided significant start-up funds for the development of the new health insurance marketplaces, by January 1, 2015 all the state-based marketplaces must be self-sustaining. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts Sarah Dash, Kevin Lucia, Justin Giovannelli and Sean Miskell provide an update on states’ approaches to marketplace financing and sustainability.

Raising the Curtain on Open Enrollment, Round Two

The second open enrollment period for the health insurance marketplaces, or OE2, is mere days away. Our colleague at Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Tricia Brooks, takes a look behind the curtain and gives us a glimpse of what we can expect.

New “Halbig Provision” in Health Plan Agreements Poses Little Threat to Consumers

Insurers that sell coverage through the ACA’s federally facilitated marketplaces must sign a privacy and security agreement with the federal government. New language gives insurers greater flexibility to end that agreement if premium tax credits cease to be available to marketplace enrollees. Justin Giovannelli explores the significance of this development for consumers.

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.