Health exchange advisers support keeping criteria

An advisory panel for Arkansas' federally operated health insurance exchange on Wednesday approved a recommendation that the state continue using the same criteria it set last year for plans offered on the exchange.

The recommendation was first made earlier this month by the exchange's Plan Management Advisory Committee.

On Wednesday, the exchange's Steering Committee, made up of state officials, insurance industry representatives, health care providers and consumers, approved the plan management committee's recommendation, which will go to Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr.

Kerr will make the final decisions for a bulletin to insurance companies next month outlining the criteria for plans with coverage taking effect next year.

Established under the 2010 federal health care overhaul law, the exchange allows people to shop for coverage and apply for subsidies to help pay for it.

Under a partnership agreement with the federal government, Arkansas helps regulate the plans offered on the exchange, which is operated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Rules adopted by former Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford in 2013 included dividing the state into seven service and rating regions in which plans can be offered and allowing companies to offer as many plans as they want, as long as they can show a "meaningful difference" between the plans in accordance with federal regulations.

In advocating to keep the criteria the same for coverage taking effect next year, Plan Management Advisory committee members noted that insurance companies will face a tight deadline for submitting the rates and other details of their plans to the Insurance Department.

In December, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified insurers that it tentatively planned to set April 15 as the deadline for submitting the plans they hope to offer for coverage taking effect in 2016.

That would mean companies would have to submit the plans to the Arkansas Insurance Department by March 15.

The plan management committee of the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace board of directors on Jan. 14 made a similar recommendation for plans that will be offered on the state's small-business exchange.

Created by the Legislature in 2013, the marketplace is using money from a $99.9 million grant to establish a state-run insurance exchange for small businesses that would begin operations later this year, for coverage starting in 2016.

The marketplace also plans to use grant money to establish a state-run exchange for individual consumers that would start in 2016, for coverage that would begin in 2017.

Once the state-based exchanges are established, the Health Insurance Marketplace will have the final say on the state's criteria for the plans.

Metro on 01/29/2015

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