Marketplace
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There’s a Hole in Our Bucket: Addressing Children’s Health Insurance Churn
By Ashley Storms, New England Alliance for Children’s Health Pursuing health coverage for all children can sometimes feel like pouring water into a leaky bucket. Even when outreach and enrollment efforts are strong, a substantial portion of children will lose their insurance at least once. Unstable insurance coverage, known as “churn,” is inefficient and keeps…
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CHIP Lock Outs May Leave Kids Without Premium Tax Credits, Too
By Joe Touschner As Tricia Brooks wrote last week, new rules set limits on how states handle lock out periods for children enrolled in CHIP. Several states impose a lock out period—a length of time when a child may not receive CHIP coverage—when families fail to pay CHIP premiums. The new rules limit lock out…
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Tech Tuesday: How Kids Coverage Has Innovated Technology-Based Solutions to Maximize Enrollment
Over the past several years, I have had the pleasure of participating as a technical assistance faculty member for Maximizing Enrollment, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with technical assistance and direction provided by the National Academy of State Health Policy. The program works intensively with eight states to (as the name…
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New Rules Set Limits on Locking Kids Out of Coverage for Nonpayment of Premiums
Thirty-three (33) states charge premiums or enrollment fees for children enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP, starting as low as 101% of the federal poverty level in CHIP. In the past, federal guidelines for dealing with premium grace periods and nonpayment of premiums were minimal, particularly in CHIP. It was not until CHIP was reauthorized in…
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Certified Application Counselors
Trusted community-based organizations and health care providers have been a key part of our nation’s success in bringing the rate of uninsured children down to an historic low. These community partners will also be an important resource in connecting consumers to new coverage options under the Affordable Care Act. In particular, certified application counselors (CACs)…
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Tech Tuesday: Visit “Healthcare.Gov” or YouTube to Get a Taste of What’s Around the Corner
Working in the weeds of health policy, it’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of the health care law. And in the media, we are constantly bombarded with the aspects of the law that are most controversial or problematic. So sometimes we lose perspective (I know I do) as we seek perfection in…
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New Kaiser/Urban Report Highlights the Costs of NOT Extending Medicaid
By Martha Heberlein As many states are nearing or have reached the end of their legislative sessions, it’s a good time to take stock of who will implement the Medicaid expansion and the far-reaching implications of these decisions. Twenty-four states have decided to move forward with the expansion, 21 will not, and 6 continue to…
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Health Reform at Work – Lower Rates in New York
By Christine Monahan, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms New Yorkers currently or considering purchasing coverage in the individual market woke up to exciting news today: premiums in 2014 are expected to be cut by more than half. And that’s for the most generous coverage on the market. New Yorkers will also be able to purchase…
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More Info on Individual Mandate Exemptions
By Joe Touschner The Affordable Care Act’s employer responsibility and individual responsibility requirements have been much discussed since the Administration announced its decision to delay reporting and penalties for the employer requirement for a year. The individual responsibility requirement, however, is still on track to go into effect in January and recent rules and guidance…
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Consumer Group Creates Set of Customer Service Standards for Marketplace Call Centers
By Betsy Imholz, Special Projects Director, Consumers Union Think of the last time you called your cable company to respond to the latest promotion or to ask a billing question. Recall the ache in the pit of your stomach, the cringing expectation you’d be put on hold, shuffled from person to person, denied the promised…
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Final Regulations on Navigators, In-Person Assisters and Certified Application Counselors
It was another hot summer Friday for regulations with the release of the final rule on navigator and non-navigator assisters (aka in-person assisters) and Exchange-based certified application counselors (CAC). (Don’t our friends at CMS know that we like to take weekends off?) All in all, the proposed rules for navigators were finalized with minimal changes…
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ACA Reforms Free Up Entrepreneurs to Focus on Their Work
By JoAnn Volk, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms Ever dream about getting out of the rat race and putting your talent and creativity to work helping others? That’s just what Joe and Virginia Murphy did. But they had to give up the security of the health care coverage that came with Joe’s job…
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Health Reform Rule Will Change Not Stop Income Verification
By Judy Solomon, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities In the last several days, some media coverage has seriously misinterpreted changes to how health reform’s new health insurance marketplaces (formerly called exchanges) will verify that applicants are eligible for federal health insurance subsidies. The changes to verification procedures, which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)…
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Tech Tuesday: How will health coverage websites connect consumers to assistance?
In this countdown to open enrollment, states are scrambling to get their MAGI-based eligibility and enrollment systems ready to go. Already, HealthCare.gov has gotten a facelift and several state based exchanges have launched their websites; all of which will serve as an entry point to the single streamlined application for all insurance affordability programs. It’s…
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Outreach Grant Will Help California Advocates Connect More Kids to Coverage
By Suzie Shupe and Edgar Aguilar, California Coverage and Health Initiatives California is the most populous state in the union and home to more than 13 percent of the nation’s uninsured children. Since coverage is essential for making sure children reach their full potential, California Coverage & Health Initiatives (CCHI) is honored to receive a…
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All Eyes on States – Time to Say Goodbye to CHIP Waiting Periods
As states are rushing to get their enrollment and eligibility systems in top form going into 2014, HHS just handed them one more critical decision to make: getting rid of outdated CHIP waiting periods. Say Ahhh! readers know that eliminating CHIP waiting periods— or the period of time that a child must remain uninsured before…
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Our Initial Take on Today’s Final Medicaid, CHIP, Exchange Rule
I’m holding the fort down at CCF while most of my colleagues get a few well-deserved days off. But unfortunately that means I drew the short straw for a first look at final Medicaid and Exchange regulations released on this hot, humid day wedged between a national holiday and what could be a long weekend.…
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Tech Tuesday: Technology Will Deliver Most Navigator and Assister Training
As the federal government and states work toward developing training for navigators and assisters, it is likely that much of it will be web-based. Using technology to deliver training is certainly cost-effective. It enables navigator entities to get new staff trained without waiting for the next scheduled training, and allows states to making training easily…
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State-Specific Supplemental Navigator and Assister Training
The following outline focuses on Medicaid and CHIP policy information and training topics for which content differs from state to state, and may not be covered in-depth in federal training for navigators and other assisters.
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Navigator Assister Training Outline
This comprehensive outline for navigators and other types of assisters was developed to inform the scope of training that is being developed at both the federal and state level to prepare navigators and other assisters to connect consumers to existing and expanded coverage options un the Affordable Care Act.