Will New Rule Boost Enrollment on ACA Exchanges? AIS Newsletter Polls the Experts
Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 15, 2016 -- In the wake of a new proposal that would place limits on short-term health plans, Atlantic Information Services, Inc.’s (AIS) Health Plan Week (HPW) asked health insurance industry consultants and observers if it would be successful. Their responses, which run optimistic to pessimistic, appear in HPW’s June 13 issue. The draft rule, proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this month, would limit the term of short-term health plans to three months, and end their renewals, with the intention of boosting enrollment on Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges.
Tim Jost, a Washington and Lee University emeritus law professor who serves as a consumer advocate at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, told HPW, “I do think the proposed regulation would go a long ways toward ensuring the short-term policies are limited to their real purpose — to cover brief gaps in coverage — and are not a means to siphoning healthy people out from the risk pool.” He also said he believes that the regulation “should discourage unscrupulous insurance marketers from selling people on the idea that short-term coverage is real minimum essential coverage.” Deborah Chollet, a fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, told HPW that the rule “should help substantially.”
Erik Johnson, vice president for value-based care at Optum, Inc., a unit of UnitedHealth Group, told HPW that he thinks it’s a “reasonable” response, but expressed doubt. “Limiting duration and renewability are two good steps to balance the risk pools in the exchanges. I’m not sure it will be enough.” Tom Miller, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, also said that he doesn’t think the rule will help, citing previous attempts to get people to enroll in exchanges.
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About Health Plan Week
Published since 1991, the weekly newsletter Health Plan Week provides timely, objective business, financial and regulatory news of the health insurance industry. Coverage includes new benefit designs and underwriting practices, new products and marketing strategies, mergers and alliances, financial performance and results, Medicare and Medicaid opportunities, disease management, and the flood of reform-driven regulatory initiatives including medical loss ratios, exchanges, ACOs and myriad benefit design changes that are mandated. Visit http://aishealth.com/marketplace/health-plan-week for more information.
About AIS
Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the health care industry for nearly 30 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals and health systems, health insurance companies, medical group practices, purchasers of health insurance, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, databases, websites, looseleafs, strategic reports, directories, webinars, virtual conferences and training programs. Learn more at http://AISHealth.com.
Jill Brown, Executive Editor, Atlantic Information Services, Inc., http://aishealth.com, +1 (202) 775-9008 Ext: 3058, [email protected]
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