by Leslie Small
While Nevada is taking stock of its first Affordable Care Act
(ACA) open enrollment period as a true state-based exchange, Pennsylvania is
gearing up to follow in the silver state’s footsteps and make its own break
with HealthCare.gov.
Pennsylvania is one of three states — alongside New Jersey and
New Mexico — that are planning an imminent transition from the federal health
insurance enrollment platform to their own state-based exchange.
In the keystone state, the move will be the result of
legislation Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signed this past July, which also cleared the way
for a reinsurance program aimed at lowering individual market premiums. Zachary
Sherman, director of the Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Authority, says
the state believed it could derive more value from operating its own exchange,
given that the federal government has twice increased the HealthCare.gov user
fee.
By tapping the technology platform GetInsured — the same firm
used by Nevada — Pennsylvania will be able to operate its own exchange for less
money than it currently pays for HealthCare.gov, then use those savings to fund
the state’s share of a reinsurance program, Sherman says.
However, there are also benefits to operating a state-based
exchange that aren’t necessarily related to costs.
“When you have local control of the marketplace, there’s a lot
of advantages to that, and all of them [are] in service to better access,
better customer service [and] making sure that the products offered by the
health plans are the right ones that fit the needs of the consumers you’re
trying to serve,” Sherman says.
He describes Pennsylvania’s exchange insurers as being “very
supportive” of the move to a state-based exchange — including when the
legislation authorizing the shift was being considered. Pennsylvania is now
working closely with insurance carriers to set up new electronic interactions
between their systems and the state’s nascent exchange.
No comments:
Post a Comment