The 2021 expansion of federal premium tax credits (PTCs) drove uninsured rates to a record low in 2023, but this critical financial assistance will expire after 2025 unless Congress acts. CHIR faculty Rachel Swindle and Justin Giovannelli talk more about this in their latest issue brief for the Commonwealth Fund.
The 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) is the primary federal law protecting access to behavioral health care for privately insured Americans. In a new issue brief for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts interviewed insurance regulators in ten states to identify the tools state regulators are using for MHPAEA oversight and enforcement, as well as the barriers they are facing.
As hospitals and health systems expand their ownership and control of ambulatory care practices, they are frequently charging new facility fees for routine medical services delivered in outpatient settings. These bills are driving up premiums and health expenditures for consumers, employers, and, ultimately, tax payers. With support from and working in partnership with West Health, CHIR experts are studying outpatient facility fee billing reforms and share their findings in a new online repository.
With more outpatient care being delivered in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) than in previous years, consumers increasingly face high hospital facility fee charges on top of their provider’s bill for routine medical care. CHIR’s Hanan Rakine discusses the 2024 legislative session and how different states have been successful in regulating outpatient facility fees.
In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To The Point blog, CHIR’s Jalisa Clark and Christine H. Monahan describe how Washington and California’s quality programs are focusing on equity and highlight opportunities for other state-based marketplaces to similarly strengthen their own quality programs.
On Tuesday, May 21st, Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms held the final of three events in its series on the Futures of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance. Event speakers Stacy Sanders, Erin Fuse Brown, David Seltz and Charles Miller discussed competition in health care from the federal and state perspectives.
The US Department of Labor recently finalized regulations governing the formation of Association Health Plans, reversing a 2018 Trump-era policy. In a recent Health Affairs Forefront article, CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette reviews the final rule and its impact on small business health insurance.
Millions of Americans rely on Health Care Sharing Ministries (HCSM) in lieu of insurance to provide a financial cushion if they get sick or injured. But data from HCSM public filings suggest that reliance may be built on a shaky foundation. CHIR’s Nadia Stovicek and JoAnn Volk share their findings.
CHIR’s summer reading list includes the latest health policy literature. In July, we read about the disparities in medical debt burdens, policy interventions to reduce choice errors in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace, and the affordability of Marketplace health insurance under subsidy expansion.
While the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) ended in May, the PHE declaration for the opioid crisis continues. Opioid overdose deaths remain alarmingly high, and the Biden administration recently bolstered the federal government’s response to the opioid crisis with new proposed rules to strengthen access to treatment. CHIR’s Rachel Swindle and Kristen Ukeomah explore this proposal as well as other recent state and federal policy changes that aim to reduce barriers to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder.
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.
