November 15th marks the start not only of open enrollment into the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces, but also of the NAIC’s Fall National Meeting. And many of the same issues on the mind of health insurance consumers are also priorities for state insurance department officials. Sabrina Corlette will be attending the meeting and has this preview.
During the past few months, CHIR faculty have examined the proliferation of narrow provider networks associated with plans on the health insurance marketplaces. Here, Sally McCarty discusses lessons learned and potential solutions offered by two faculty work products.
We at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms are excited to share the first of an upcoming video series on timely health insurance topics. In our debut video, CHIR experts Sabrina Corlette, JoAnn Volk, and Dave Cusano provide a preview of upcoming action at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) national meeting to address concerns about network adequacy of health plans offered through the new health insurance Marketplaces.
While narrow provider networks are by no means new to health insurance, the practice has received renewed attention as plans participating in the marketplaces turn to network design to keep premium costs low. While consumers benefit from more affordable insurance, overly narrow networks can risk the quality of care consumers receive and increase their out-of-pocket costs. In this blog post originally published by Health Affairs, CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and JoAnn Volk and the Urban Institute’s Robert Berenson and Judy Feder discuss the cost-access trade-offs for consumers and offer a few recommendations for policymakers.
Now that open enrollment is over, consumers are starting to raise questions about their coverage. One such question from Georgia illustrates one of the challenges consumers may face – a network that changes mid-year. JoAnn Volk takes a look at some options.
A set of new tools for state insurance regulators, as well as updated versions of some older resources, have recently been posted on the Robert Wood Johnson State Health Reform Assistance Network (State Network) web site. CHIR faculty Sally McCarty, David Cusano, and Max Farris, who serve as technical assistance professionals (TAPS) in the State Network Program, developed the new resources. Sally McCarty describes them here and provides information about an upcoming Webinar to introduce them and demonstrate their use.
While we’re struggling with Affordable Care Act (ACA) issues, there’s value in taking the time to look back and appreciate the impact of the ACA and other healthcare reforms implemented over the past few decades. To that end, former insurance commissioner and health insurance company executive Sally McCarty begins a series of blogs that compare the healthcare coverage landscape before and after reform. The series is called “Back in the Day – Lessons from Pre-reform Days,” and begins with a look at narrow networks.
The ACA’s essential health benefits and metal tier coverage standards, guaranteed issue, and community rating requirements help level the playing field among insurers. To compete on price, many are turning to limited network products. CHIR experts David Cusano and Amy Thomas discuss insurers’ approaches to the development of plan networks in the post-ACA era in a new blog post originally published by Health Affairs.
Did the President tell the truth when he told the American people: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”? Are health plans narrowing their provider networks and if so, what does it mean for consumers and the state officials charged with protecting them? CHIR experts Sabrina Corlette and Sally McCarty tackle these thorny issues in their latest blog.
Media outlets are reporting on a trend towards narrow network health plans offered through the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces. Max Farris and Sally McCarty provide context for this emerging issue and discuss the state role in ensuring consumers have access to a sufficient number of primary care and specialty care physicians, facilities, and other providers.
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.
