Benefits & Services

HHS Suggests States Will Have Choices on Essential Health Benefits

By Joe Touschner For nearly a year now, we’ve been tracking the process of defining the essential health benefits.  The EHB package will define the minimum set of benefits to be covered by insurance plans in the individual and small group markets as well as benchmark Medicaid plans and Basic Health Programs. On Friday afternoon, […]

A Chance to Raise Your Voice for Kids

By Joe Touschner We’ve posted in the past about the essential health benefits–the package of benefits that will be the basis for all health plans in the individual and small group markets and for some in Medicaid starting in 2014. Last month, the Institute of Medicine made recommendations to the Department of Health and Human […]

IOM Report Starts Process of Defining Essential Health Benefits

By Joe Touschner The Affordable Care Act will bring health coverage within reach for millions of uninsured people. The law, though, doesn’t answer the question of exactly what that coverage will look like–that is, what benefits it will cover. The law charges the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to define an […]

IOM Works to Define Process for Essential Health Benefits

By Joe Touschner Even as the House of Representatives takes time to re-debate the Affordable Care Act, many organizations are hard at work implementing the new law. Last week, an Institute of Medicine panel held a two day meeting to help develop recommendations on essential health benefits that will form the basis for state-based exchange […]

GAO Finds Medicaid & CHIP Dental Care Slowly Improving

By Meg Booth and Colin Reusch, Children’s Dental Health Project It’s been almost four years since the tragedy of Deamonte Driver, a twelve-year-old Maryland boy who died due to complications of an untreated abscessed tooth. His death highlighted the worst case scenario for families struggling to find dental care. Those of you who know Children’s […]