By Martha Heberlein

HHS announced today that up to $1 million per state will be available in grants to begin establishing health insurance exchanges. This first round of grants is designed to help cash-strapped states conduct the research and planning necessary to build the new marketplaces. Grant applications are available at: http://www.healthcare.gov/center/grants and are due by September 1, 2010 (there is a pre-application call scheduled for August 5th). Only states are eligible to apply for the grants and no matching funds are required.

In describing their planning activities in the grant application, states must include information on how they will involve stakeholders in the decision making process, as well as how they plan to build on and integrate the exchange with existing public programs such as Medicaid and CHIP. And in a nod to transparency, states must post information about the planning grants on their websites.

The administration also released a request for comments on the standards and rules that Exchanges will be required to meet. The administration is encouraging states, consumer advocates, employers, insurers, and other interested stakeholders to provide input. To add your two-cents, go to: http://www.healthcare.gov/center/regulations. Comments are due by October 4, 2010.