CMS ANNOUNCES NAVIGATOR FUNDING
Throughout the summer, we will be publishing the NDNRC Update on a biweekly basis.
CMS has released its Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for navigators for the open enrollment period for health plans for 2020 – the seventh open enrollment period (OE7). As was the case last year, funding available this year is significantly lower than the funding levels in the first five years. The full CMS announcement can be found in our news item, along with links to the CMS Overview on Applying and CMS’s FAQ sheet. Applications are due July 22nd.
Last week, the Trump Administration released proposed regulations which would amend Section 1557 of the ACA which is the civil rights section within the ACA. You can check out our news item for links to the actual proposed rules, the HHS press release and the HHS fact sheet. For a full breakdown of what is included in the proposed regulations, you can also check out the blog post from Health Affairs. Finally, the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) has released a statement which raises concerns over the proposed rules.
The Kaiser Family Foundation recently did a webinar going over all of the various Medicare-for-all proposals. A video for this webinar has been archived and the slides are also available.
A new proposal from the Trump Administration would change the way the federal poverty line is calculated. A new fact sheet from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities discusses the implications that this change could have for several programs, including Medicaid eligibility and eligibility for premium tax credits in the ACA marketplaces.
HHS recently requested stakeholders submit comments on what the department could do to further promote selling health insurance across state lines. A blog post from the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) outlines the feedback they got from several stakeholders which raised many concerns on this topic.
The CHIR blog also posted about their recent issue brief which looks at what states are doing to protect consumers from short-term health plans.
The National Academy for State Health Policy recently released a blog and webinar on what goes into running a successful state-based marketplace (SBM). The two publications are based on advice from the leaders of five SBMs.
One in five adults in the US act as informal caregivers for a family member or friend with a disability or health difficulty. The New Hampshire Disability & Public Health Project (NHDPH) has policy options to support their contribution.
Earlier this year, we released a Call to Action to the disability community to learn about the All of Us Research Program and consider participation. If you want to learn more about our project with the NIH’s All of Us Research Project, check out the Frequently Asked Questions document about the program.
Are you looking for local partners to help with outreach to the disability community? The NDNRC has Community Outreach Collaboratives (COCs) which work to increase collaborations in the community, dissemination and outreach efforts and enrollment of people with disabilities in the ACA marketplace. You can find a COC, on the COC page of our website.
Archives of our weekly updates are available on the NDNRC website.