Health-Exchange-Alert

Consumer advocates tell CMS that the proposed exchange rule leaves room for web-based brokers and direct enrollment entities to display qualified health plan (QHP) options in a way that pushes consumers toward plans for which the brokers receive compensation, despite the agency’s stated goals to the contrary.

A bill moving through the Idaho state legislature would create “enhanced” short-term plans that could eventually end up looking very similar to Idaho’s proposed state-based health plans, state Insurance Commissioner Dean Cameron told Inside Health Policy.

The class action lawsuit spearheaded by Wisconsin-based Common Ground Health Cooperative and involving about 90 other exchange issuers has filed an amended complaint with the Federal Court of Claims and now seeks to collect cost-sharing reduction reimbursements owed for plan years 2017, 2018 and 2019.

In the final days of its session the New Mexico legislature passed legislation to fund a Medicaid Buy-In study for the upcoming fiscal year.

CMS on Friday (March 15) approved Ohio's plan to enact Medicaid work requirements, making it the ninth state to receive federal permission to tie Medicaid coverage to work.

The New Mexico state legislature closed its 2019 session on Friday (March 15) by passing a bill to ensure state insurers protect people with preexisting conditions in the face of challenges to the Affordable Care Act.

CMS says Arkansas received an advanced draft of guidance released Thursday (March 14) on evaluating 1115 waivers -- particularly those testing work requirements -- and the agency has been working with the state on its evaluation plan.

A federal judge said he hopes to rule on the legality of Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky by the end of the month, unveiling his plan to decide quickly at the conclusion of back-to-back court hearings Thursday (March 14) that tested the reasoning behind one of the Trump administration’s most controversial health care priorities.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar told Senate Finance Committee members Thursday (March 14) that the more than 18,000 Arkansas residents who lost Medicaid coverage after work requirements took effect is a normal level of churn.