RE: Health Insurance Exchanges?
Ray Scheppach (Chief Financial Officer , Vail Systems, Inc.)
| Jan 17, 2012Hello. Has anyone done any research regarding the new health exchanges? I believe the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) has elected to give Exchanges until January 2013 to attain compliance. Do all states have to comply?
I wonder if this will be embraced by the corporate world on day one or will it take time to be digested across the various industries/enterprises.
Please comment.
Kind regards,
Ray Scheppach
Chief Financial Officer
Vail Systems, Inc.
Topics:
Answers
Company: Provider Finance Associates, LLC
The Kaiser Family Foundation released a report "Establishing Health Insurance Exchanges: An Update on State Efforts" in July 2011. The findings of the the report are interesting. You may some of their answers relevant to your questions.
State Health Insurance Exchanges (HIE) are scheduled to be in "complete readiness" by January 1, 2013 and operational by January 1, 2014. The Federal government will operate an HIE in each State that has not instituted an HIE by that time. More than one third of all States had begun defining their HIE implementation by July 2011. That, of course, means that nearly two thirds of the States had not started their implementation of this mandate authorized under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). Illinois (where Vail Systems is headquartered) has enacted legislation intended to establish an HIE as of July 2011.
The ACA requires all HIE are to be self-sufficient by January 1, 2015. There is no precise mechanism in the ACA "in which the exchanges can or should collect money. Nearly all exchanges were authorized to apply for public and/or private grants, though this funding may be most helpful during the planning and implementation stages." The majority of States are moving carefully as much of the HIE concept is being debated ex ante, i.e. before the event.
The complete report can be found here: http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8213.pdf.