While it seems like we just finished open enrollment, the next round for 2017 coverage is right around the corner. For open enrollment IV, officials will be implementing new policy changes in an effort to ensure not just a better shopping experience, but also to minimize disruptions of coverage and financial assistance. CHIR’s Sandy Ahn and Sabrina Corlette summarize some of the 2017 changes for FFMs below.
When the administration finalized Marketplace regulations for 2017 and beyond earlier this week, it officially expanded roles for Navigators. While much of what CHIRblog had previously described under the proposed rule from November has been retained in the final rules, Sandy Ahn provides a brief update of the additional Navigator duties.
For the most part, the ACA tries to align the ways that Medicaid and the health insurance marketplaces determine eligibility for their respective programs. But every once in a while, there’s a risk that someone might fall through the cracks. This initially appeared to be the case when our colleague Tricia Brooks was asked to help with a complex family situation in which a child seemed to be caught between the differences between each program’s rules, putting him at risk of being uninsured. Fortunately, Tricia was able to unearth a little known but important rule that helps kids get the coverage they’re entitled to.
A new proposed rule from the Obama Administration contains wide-ranging new requirements for insurance companies and marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act, including changes that expand the role of marketplace navigators. CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette shares some highlights.
A recent study has found that as many as 2.2 million people are missing out on Affordable Care Act cost-sharing subsidies that could make their insurance coverage more affordable. Our Center for Children and Families colleague, Tricia Brooks, discusses some critical tools the state and federal marketplaces could put in place to make sure consumers are getting the financial help they’re eligible for.
We’re just 12 weeks away from the start of the third open enrollment period (OE3) for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces. The results from a recently released Kaiser Family Foundation survey of health insurance Navigators and brokers offer some helpful insights on ways to improve consumer outreach and enrollment going forward. CHIR’s Hannah Ellison and Sabrina Corlette share some highlights.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has published the first indications of where it intends to take the Navigator program for the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges. Some new policies could bring some much needed stability to in-person consumer assistance. Our colleague at Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Tricia Brooks, has the details.
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.
Regulations issued last month by the Department of Health and Human Services show that laws in more than a dozen states may be invalid because they go too far in restricting the work of consumer assistance personnel certified under the Affordable Care Act. In a blog post published by The Commonwealth Fund, Justin Giovannelli, Kevin Lucia, and Sabrina Corlette discuss these new rules and how they affect state efforts to regulate consumer assisters.
With the close of open enrollment in the new health insurance Marketplaces, it is a good time not only to applaud the work of the navigators and consumer assisters who helped people gain access to new coverage, but also to reflect on lessons learned and assess what can be done to improve consumer assistance for 2015. Our colleague at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, Tricia Brooks, does just that in her latest post.
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.
