Marketplace
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New Resource Looks at Premium Assistance Options in Medicaid/CHIP
Yesterday my new report for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured was released called Premium Assistance in Medicaid and CHIP: An Overview of Current Options and Implications of the Affordable Care Act. The paper examines how statutory changes in the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act and the Affordable Care Act have changed…
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New Study Finds Failure to Expand Medicaid Could be Costly for Employers
A new study provides states with yet another reason to accept federal funding to extend Medicaid coverage to more uninsured people. A study by Jackson Hewitt Tax Service found that states that fail to accept the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid option will leave employers exposed to higher shared responsibility payments than employers in states that…
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Consumer Advocates Respond to HHS’s Model Application
By Jocelyn Guyer Let’s just say it straight out. Congress handed the Administration a Mt. Everest-sized challenge when it said they must develop a simple, streamlined model application for enrollment in all possible sources of ACA coverage – Exchange coverage, Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTCs), Medicaid and CHIP. It would be hard enough to figure…
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Replacing ARKids First with Exchange Coverage Would Put Children – and Arkansas’s Success – at Risk
Like most health policy folks, I have been watching developments in my home state of Arkansas with much interest. Recent media reports have discussed interest among state leaders to use Medicaid to purchase plans on the exchange, also known as the marketplace that will make private insurance available to many uninsured Arkansans starting next year…
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Final Rule Sets Insurance Market Reforms
By Joe Touschner In addition to providing authority to expand Medicaid and establish health insurance marketplaces, the Affordable Care Act works to improve health care coverage by introducing key reforms to how private health plans are offered and sold, mostly in the individual and small group markets. A recent final rule from HHS clarifies a…
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Finding the Pot of Gold at the End of the Navigator Rainbow!
News that a new proposed rule on Navigators is under review at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) hopefully means it won’t be long before we see model navigator training, conflict of interest and privacy standards. With any luck, release of the proposed standards should pave the way for the federal navigator grant solicitation.…
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National League of Cities Receives Funding from Atlantic Philanthropies to Help Cities Improve Outreach and Enrollment
By Wesley Prater The National League of Cities (NLC) recently received a grant by Atlantic Philanthropies to conduct a three-year project, focused primarily on helping cities expand access to Medicaid and CHIP. The project will provide technical assistance and grants to help cities develop outreach and enrollment campaigns. Request for Proposals (RFPs) will be released…
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Assister Types Abound: But Where Oh Where Have All the In-Person Assisters Gone?
Last summer in a refresh of the exchange establishment grants, CMS quietly offered federal funding for a new category of assisters, called “in-person assisters” (IPAs). In November, I summarized what we did and didn’t know about IPAs in this blog post. In a nutshell, IPAs are intended to help exchanges meet their requirement to…
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Medicaid Access: Increased Demand for Primary Care Providers Will Vary Across Country
By Tara Mancini See CCF’s latest fact sheet on Medicaid Access Earlier this week, my colleague, Joan Alker, blogged about how Medicaid provides access to needed care. As she mentioned, the decision to extend Medicaid coverage to millions of the uninsured has often been met with skepticism over whether the health care system has the…
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Final Essential Health Benefits Rule Unveiled
By Joe Touschner It’s been a long process involving an in-depth study, state choices, and stakeholder comment on multiple rounds of proposals from HHS, but we now have the final essential health benefits rule. Along with it came final rules on actuarial value for QHPs and cost-sharing limits in many types of private health coverage.…
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Most Important Issues for Children in the New Proposed Rule on Medicaid, CHIP and Exchanges
By Jocelyn Guyer After an intensive few weeks spent lugging around binders filled with the latest proposed rule on Medicaid and CHIP, we’ve finally done it! Here is our very best shot at a concise(ish) list of the top issues of concern for kids in the proposed rule. Comments are due this Thursday and, if…
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Assister Types Abound: Seven Steps to Strengthen Certified Application Counselor Programs
If you read the first blog in this series, you know we’re excited about the new Certified Application Counselor program because it builds on the existing and immensely effective infrastructure of community-based application assistance in many states. Here are seven ways to strengthen the proposed CAC program rules to better protect and meet the needs…
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Assister Types Abound: Introducing the Certified Application Counselor
Using community-based organizations, including community health centers and hospitals, to assist with Medicaid and CHIP enrollment has been a core element of successful state strategies in maximizing children’s health coverage over the years. Based on the latest 50-state survey on Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment, 23 states provided funding to these key community partners…
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Diabetes No Longer Impediment to Daughter’s Future Thanks to Affordable Care Act
By JoAnn Volk, Center on Health Insurance Reforms (Veronica of Charlotte, North Carolina, was diagnosed with diabetes at age 8. She is pictured here with her mother Nikki.) Health, happiness and success are three of the most common wishes parents have for their children’s future. That is why it is so devastating when a child…
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Proposed Rules Shed Light on Individual Mandate Exceptions
By Joe Touschner and Tara Mancini As highlighted in the Supreme Court case, we all know that the Affordable Care Act includes a tax on those who choose not to maintain health insurance coverage starting next year. New rules from the federal government spell out just who will face that tax—and more importantly, who won’t.…
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The Goldilocks Plan: Getting Benefit Design “Just Right” for Insurance Exchanges
Yesterday, the journal Health Affairs has published an article I co-wrote with CHIR colleague Christine Monahan and colleagues Dave Downs and Barbara Yondorf, both affiliated with Engaged Public in Denver, Colorado. In it, we examine a policy conundrum for health exchange planners. On one hand, politicians and policymakers have promised consumers that the new exchanges…
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Final Treasury Rule Contains Family Penalty
By Joe Touschner In a move that will keep many children out of subsidized exchange coverage, the Department of Treasury today released a final rule that includes the “family penalty” in the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits. (Note that this problem is also frequently referred to as the “family glitch” or “firewall”). We’ve been…
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Why Should Health Insurance Exchanges Drive Higher-Quality Health Care?
By Sarah Dash, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms Do you remember the last time you had a headache and your doctor used leeches to restore you to good health? Fortunately, neither do I. That’s because the practice of bloodletting – the most common surgical procedure for almost two thousand years because it was thought to improve health…
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Getting Into Gear for 2014: Findings from a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2012-2013
As 2013 begins, implementation of the major provisions of the ACA, including its coverage expansions, is less than a year away. Following the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the ACA and the 2012 elections, efforts to prepare for 2014 are moving into high gear in many states. The majority of states are capitalizing on web-based…
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How Will Families Fare with the Workplace Wellness Rule?
By JoAnn Volk, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms Improving one’s health usually makes the top ten list for New Year’s resolutions so as we all hit that make or break time on our personal resolutions, let’s take a moment to focus on the proposed workplace wellness rules. The Departments of Health and Human…