Obamacare glitches give paper applications new life

Politico October 7, 2013 By Jason Millman Obamacare is supposed to be a 21st-century shopping experience, but the health law can’t escape living in an older paper world. One of President Barack Obama’s favorite claims about his health law is that finding coverage is as easy as going online to buy a plane ticket. That’s…

October 7, 2013

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Early Results in Arkansas Show ACA is Reaching Uninsured Children and Families

By Anna Strong, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Early evidence is already available in Arkansas to show the immediate benefits our state’s children are receiving from the Affordable Care Act. We’ve written before that research shows the BEST way to cover the state’s remaining 46,000 uninsured children is to make sure parents have access to affordable…

October 6, 2013

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Guest

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If CMS and Arkansas Agree on a Strong Evaluation Plan, I May Breathe a Bit Easier

In August I blogged about Arkansas’s waiver proposal to expand Medicaid using the so-called “private option” which actually means newly-eligible Medicaid beneficiaries will be picking plans from the new insurance marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act. The waiver proposal was approved last Friday but a number of pieces are still outstanding. Expecting approval, the…

October 4, 2013

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Joan Alker

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Catching Up on Dental Coverage for Kids

By Joe Touschner Marketplaces are now open and families are comparing plans so it’s a good time to focus on where we stand on dental coverage and link to a couple of helpful resources from the Children’s Dental Health Project and Community Catalyst. As we’ve known since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law,…

October 3, 2013

Media Coverage

Reform Update: Training lagging for counselors to help consumers use exchanges

Modern Healthcare October 3, 2013 By Steven Ross Johnson Healthcare providers and community organizations across the country that have been designated as certified application counselors to help consumers enroll in health plans on the new state health insurance exchanges are still waiting for their staff to receive certification because of delays by state and federal officials. “People…

October 3, 2013

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How Will Immigrants Fare Under Health Reform? Encouraging Enrollment

By Dinah Wiley Immigrants who are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, compared to their citizen counterparts, are less likely to sign up for health coverage. Why is this so? It’s true that newcomers to the U.S. are more healthy than native-born Americans, for a few years at least. Yet when immigrants are offered private insurance…

October 2, 2013

Media Coverage

Reform Update: CMS’ approval of Ark. Medicaid expansion plan bodes well for other states

Modern Healthcare October 1, 2013 By Steven Ross Johnson The Obama administration’s approval last week of Arkansas’ plan to expand health coverage for low-income residents under the federal healthcare reform law bodes well for several Republican-led states looking to implement their own alternative models for expanding Medicaid. Last week, the CMS granted Arkansas a Medicaid Section 1115…

October 1, 2013

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Answering Your Questions on Certified Application Counselors

I’ve been getting lots of questions on certified application counselors, so I thought it was time to loop back to this issue and try to answer a few based on what I’ve heard along the way. How long does it take to receive approval of a CAC application? HHS has received several thousand applications from…

September 30, 2013

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Tricia Brooks

Blog

Arkansas Medicaid Waiver Agreement Approved

So interesting things always happen on Fridays, I have noticed. This Friday, the week before open enrollment begins, was already pretty hopping when word came that federal CMS had approved Arkansas’ Section 1115 Medicaid waiver request to provide coverage to an estimated 200,000 adults through qualified health plans offered in the Arkansas Health Connector, the state’s health insurance…

September 27, 2013

By

Joan Alker

Blog

Narrow Networks: Who’s Looking Out for Consumers?

By Max Farris and Sally McCarty, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms Robert Pear’s article in today’s New York Times describes what some see as a trend toward health insurers offering narrow network plans on the federal and state exchanges. Whether consumers will have adequate networks through which they can easily access providers depends on how…

September 23, 2013

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Guest

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What Can States Do to Ensure Insurers Don’t Limit Consumer Choice?

This morning, the New York Times ran a front page story headlined: “Lower Premiums to Come at Cost of Fewer Choices“. While I feel for the editors that have to explain such a complex topic in half the characters of a tweet, that headline will certainly trigger a chorus of “I told you so’s” from…

September 23, 2013

By

Cathy Hope

Blog

Insure Oklahoma Extension Paves Way for Longer Term Solution

By David Blatt, Oklahoma Policy Institute Last Friday, Oklahoma received formal word that the federal government has agreed to extend Insure Oklahoma, the state’s publicly-funded premium assistance health insurance program, until the end of 2014, subject to certain program changes. This one-year extension means that individuals and businesses that participate in the program will not…

September 10, 2013

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Guest

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Wisconsin Provides A Reality Check about What Low-Income Families Can Afford to Pay for Medicaid

States that have not yet decided to expand Medicaid to low income adults and parents are considering their options, and some are hoping to experiment with charging monthly premiums. New data from Wisconsin provides a helpful reality check. Slightly more than two-fifths of the lowest income adults paying premiums—who did not exit BadgerCare or Transitional…

September 9, 2013

By

Sonya Schwartz

Blog

Navigators Should Not Let Politics Thwart Their Important Work

Yet another attempt in a very long line of efforts to delay or derail the health care law came in the waning hours of summer after many people had already checked out for the Labor Day weekend. About half of the 104 organizations that were awarded federal navigator grants received an official demand from ranking…

September 6, 2013

By

Tricia Brooks

Blog

Health Plans Get Creative Skirting the ACA

You have to give them credit – health insurers are showing just how creative they can be at shirking their obligation to provide new consumer protections under the Affordable Care Act. Just last month Christine Monahan and I documented how health insurers are taking advantage of a legal loophole that allows them to escape compliance…

September 4, 2013

By

Sabrina Corlette

Blog

More Clarity on When Medicaid is Minimum Essential Coverage

By Joe Touschner Minimum essential coverage (not to be confused with the essential health benefits) is an important concept in the Affordable Care Act. Those who have minimum essential coverage (MEC) satisfy the individual responsibility requirement, that is, they meet the ACA’s individual mandate to have health insurance. Those who don’t have MEC other than…

September 4, 2013

Blog

Colorado Tells Health Stories “Public Radio StoryCorps” Style

I’m a public radio fan, having worked as the assistant general manager at New Hampshire Public Radio for five years before branching into the kids’ coverage world. And some of my very favorite public radio moments are listening to StoryCorps, a special series created by an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide Americans…

August 28, 2013

By

Tricia Brooks

Blog

Updates on Consumer Assistance: Navigator Grants and Training

By Sabrina Corlette, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms This has been a busy month for those of us eager for robust consumer assistance to help people enroll in the new health insurance marketplaces, which launch on October 1, 2013. First, the Administration released a set of on-line training materials for certified application counselors (CACs) and in-person assisters.…

August 26, 2013

By

Sabrina Corlette

Blog

Blending In-Person Assistance and Self-Service Online Applications for Health Insurance

By Gene Lewit, Stanford University Health Policy Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research The countdown to October 1 has begun, when millions will begin to enroll in health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA seeks to make enrollment easier by asking states to provide online enrollment systems. These new portals are…

August 26, 2013

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Guest

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CMS Issues More Guidance on Stairstep Kids

By Wesley Prater As Tricia Brooks highlighted in her previous blog, CMS recently released a set of FAQs to provide more guidance on telephonic applications, MAGI-based eligibility, Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, and the 75/25 Federal matching rate. The FAQs included more guidance about the transition of children ages 6-18 up to 133% of the FPL…

August 22, 2013

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