What triggers a special enrollment period to allow someone to enroll on the individual market outside of open enrollment has been a hot debated topic of late. Recently the administration issued a new rule tightening what life events trigger a special enrollment period. CHIR’s Sandy Ahn summarizes the new rule and what it means for consumers and the assisters that help them.
The administration recently announced that it will require verifying documents from consumers with a qualifying life change for special enrollment periods. For consumers, this means more work and likely a bumpy road to accessing health insurance through healthcare.gov. Sandy Ahn takes a look at this change and what it may mean for consumers.
This is the first year that the marketplace is denying financial assistance to individuals who failed to file their 2014 tax return and reconcile their premium tax credits. Many of these individuals may not have had to file a tax return previously and cannot afford coverage in 2016 without financial assistance. Therefore, the administration is providing a special enrollment period for these individuals as long as they file a 2014 tax return and reconcile their 2014 premium tax credits before March 31, 2016. CHIR’s Sandy Ahn summarizes this time-limited special enrollment period.
The administration recently issued guidance clarifying marketplace residency requirements and the special enrollment period (SEP) that’s available when someone moves. CHIR’s Sandy Ahn summarizes the guidance and what it means for consumers who are moving and need new health coverage.
Beginning this week, a new version of the change in income special enrollment period will take effect, providing a pathway to premium tax credits for some caught in the Medicaid coverage gap. JoAnn Volk provides an update on this “new and improved” SEP.
As part of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded project to help navigators and assisters in five states, faculty at Georgetown’s CHIR and the Center for Children and Families have been getting a lot of tax-related questions lately. Tricia Brooks, Sandy Ahn, Sabrina Corlette and JoAnn Volk share answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
More states are establishing new special enrollment opportunities to help people gain coverage through the marketplaces. In our latest video about timely health insurance topics, CHIR experts Sandy Ahn and Justin Giovannelli discuss how state-based and federal marketplaces have used special enrollment periods to boost enrollment,
Special enrollment is available to individuals who experience qualifying events allowing them to enroll into marketplace coverage. A new issue brief co-authored by CHIR’s Sandy Ahn and Kevin Lucia, along with authors from the Urban Institute, found that special enrollment systems and procedures were still a work in progress in five state-based marketplaces last year. Sandy and Kevin also discuss additional SEPs available this year.
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.
Now that open enrollment into the new health insurance marketplaces is over, the only way people can enroll in marketplace coverage is by qualifying for a special enrollment period because of a life change such as a birth, marriage, a move, or a divorce. Healthcare.gov recently made available a new “screener tool” to help consumers determine whether they qualify. CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette took the new tool for a test drive and has a few suggested improvements.
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.
