States grow anxious for federal exchange guidance

Aug 20 2011

Working groups continue planning efforts for the creation of state-run versions of these health insurance marketplaces.

Politico Pro: States Wait On Federal Exchange Guidance
State policymakers are growing increasingly anxious in the face of administration signals that key guidance on federal exchanges may not be coming until late 2011 or early 2012 — if they're coming at all. The administration appears to have decided that it does not need to issue a rule outlining the operation of a federal fallback exchange, according to sources familiar with the administration's thinking (Millman and Feder, 8/19).

Kansas Health Institute News: Insurance Exchange Work Groups To Continue Meeting
Work groups that for the last several months have been planning and pulling together information for a Kansas health insurance exchange will continue meeting despite Gov. Sam Brownback's recent rejection of a $31.5 million federal grant intended to help launch the online clearinghouse in time for a 2013 health reform deadline. Chairs of the various study groups (which collectively number more than 100 people drawn mostly from the insurance and health care industries) met today in a small, third-floor conference room at the Kansas Insurance Department to talk about what they should do next given the governor's grant spurning (Shields, 8/18).

The Lund Report: HHS Officials Arrive in Portland Next Week to Discuss Health Insurance Exchange
Oregon's health insurance exchange is off to a quick pace with the announcement that national policymakers are coming to Portland next week for a listening session on the exchange involving advocates, health plan executives, business leaders and state officials. At this multi-state event hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the participants will look at the framework behind the insurance exchanges which will create competitive marketplaces so that individuals and small employers can compare private health insurance options on the basis of price, quality and other factors (Lund-Muzikant, 8/18).

In other health law implementation news, news outlets report on regulations regarding accountable care organizations and association health plans.

Minnesota Public Radio: Health Care Orgs Balk At Rules In Overhaul
The Medicare Shared Savings Program is a program to encourage medical centers to form Accountable Care Organizations that reshape the delivery of medical care and represent one of the major legs of the health care overhaul. ... But when the federal government proposed more than 400 pages of regulations, the clinics best in a position to form ACOs objected (Stawicki, 8/19).

CQ HealthBeat: OMB To Review Final Rule On Whether AHPs Are Subject To Rate Review
A final Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation that determines whether association health plans are subject to rate review under the overhaul law is at the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, according to a notation on its website. Consumer advocates fear that the plans, which pool together individuals or small employers to buy coverage, will not be subject to such reviews, exposing "AHP" enrollees to unnecessarily large rate hikes. CMS said in its final rule on insurance rate disclosure and rate review issued in May that it wasn't making a final decision on AHPs at that time. Instead, it sought comment on the issue (Reichard, 8/18).