NEW SURVEY ON COVID-19 & DISABILITY
The American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is conducting a confidential, real-time online assessment of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on healthcare and healthcare access among persons with a range of disabilities. We are inviting adults with disabilities to complete the COVID-19 & Disability Survey between now and May 1st.
If you missed it last week, we have gathered resources that address the COVID-19 outbreak and disability. You can now find all these resources on our website at: https://www.aahd.us/covid-19/. On this page, you’ll find general resources on Disability and COVID-19, COVID-19 & Medicaid, Advocacy Resources and Governmental Resources.
While CMS has not issued a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) as a result of COVID-19, many of the state-based marketplaces (SBMs) have decided to offer a SEP for COVID-19. Since our newsletter two weeks ago, five of the SBMs (Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, Rhode Island & Washington) have extended previously announced SEPs for COVID-19. You can find the full list of SBMs who are offering SEPs and their deadlines in our news item.
While a SEP for COVID-19 may not be available to those located in the federally facilitated marketplaces, consumers could be eligible for regular SEPs if they recently lost their coverage due to a loss of job or loss of income. AAHD has been working with Community Catalyst and other partners in conducting outreach to educate individuals about health insurance literacy, special enrollment periods (SEPs) and other issues related to healthcare enrollment. Links to graphics like the one below which highlight the SEP for a loss of job can be found in the Community Catalyst Outreach Hub which has a wide variety of graphics on SEPs. To learn more about the project we are doing with Community Catalyst, check out our earlier news item.
It should be noted that people who lose coverage due to a layoff have 60 days from the date they lose their coverage to enroll through the job loss SEP.
The Community Catalyst project also has social media messaging available to highlight various aspects of health insurance enrollment related to COVID-19. This messaging can be found in their COVID-19 Messaging Guide.
If you’re wondering how states with their own SBM are faring in helping their residents acquire health insurance coverage during the COVID-19 outbreak, check out the recent blog post from the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms.
A new blog post from the National Academy for State Health Policy looks at what states are doing to protect consumers during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Earlier this month, CMS released the final enrollment numbers for 2020. To read more about the enrollment numbers or to download a copy of the report, check out our news item. For further breakdown, you can also check out the blog post from Health Affairs.
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.