NIH OFFICIALLY DESIGNATES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AS A HEALTH DISPARITIES POPULATION This week, the National Institutes of Health officially designated people with disabilities as a health disparities population, marking a huge win for disability populations, advocates, and researchers. “Disability advocates have pushed for the inclusion of people with disabilities as a health disparity population for […] Read More »
September 22, 2023
OVER 7 MILLION HAVE LOST MEDICAID COVERAGE As of September 20, over 7.1 million Medicaid enrollees have lost coverage, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. 37% of those who completed the renewal process were disenrolled and 11.9 million enrollees were able to qualify for renewed coverage. The large range of disenrollment rates in […] Read More »
New Kaiser Brief Looks at 2018 Marketplace
A new issue brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation looks at the status of the upcoming marketplace for the 2018 plan year. The brief entitled “An Early Look at 2018 Premium Changes and Insurer Participation on ACA Exchanges” examines some of the preliminary filings done by insurers in 20 states plus the District of Columbia […] Read More »
New Report Addresses Standardized Benefit Designs in SBMs
A new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute looks at how successful state-based marketplaces (SBMs) have been with implementing standardized benefit design. The report examined four SBMs, all of which allow non-standardized plans in addition to standardized ones. The four states were Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon. The study finds […] Read More »
Kaiser Analyzes 2017 Premiums
A new issue brief by the Kaiser Family Foundation analyzes the 2017 premiums for the lowest-cost silver plan in 14 cities where the information is available to conduct such an analysis.The states represented by those cities are Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and […] Read More »
New Report Addresses Enrollment of Diverse Populations
The Texas Health Institute has released a report on the efforts in some states to enroll racially and ethnically diverse populations. “Evolution of Health Insurance Marketplaces: Experiences and Progress in Reaching and Enrolling Diverse Populations” looks at eleven states and what efforts were made to reach these populations in the first two years open enrollment […] Read More »
What State Marketplaces are Doing with Tax Penalty SEPs
Last Friday, CMS announced that there would be a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) for anyone who has to pay the “shared financial responsibility payment” also known as the tax penalty. Individuals who have to pay the penalty for not having coverage in 2014 and who do not have coverage for 2015 and attest that they didn’t […] Read More »
What State Marketplaces are Doing with Open Enrollment Extensions
Earlier this week, we reported that CMS was granting a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) for anyone who encountered difficulty completing their application prior to the February 15 deadline. This only applies to the 34 states in the federal marketplace. So what about the 17 state-based marketplaces? Here’s a breakdown: California: Consumers have until February 22 to complete (only […] Read More »
Understanding Terminology Used by States in ACA Reporting
As you read reporting from different states on ACA enrollment, it is necessary to understand the specific terminology used as it can vary from state to state. A new report from the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), the State Health Exchange Leadership Network, the State Health Reform Assistance Network and the National Academy for […] Read More »
Urban Institute Releases Report on Physician Network Transparency
One of the biggest considerations by consumers when choosing a health plan is which providers are part of the network. Navigators and enrollment specialists may be asked by those they are assisting whether or not a qualified health plan will cover physicians with whom they are already treating. Finding the answers to which providers are […] Read More »