Exchange Eligibility Regs: Massive and Visionary

Just as we were speculating Friday on timing for the Exchange eligibility and enrollment regs, out it came.  The NPRM is a massive and visionary document that starts a discussion about how to revolutionize the way Americans select, enroll and pay for insurance. 

States and the Federal government face a daunting task of preparing for a flood of millions of new consumers into Medicaid and subsidy programs in 2014.  The ACA mandated a consumer-friendly, one-stop enrollment process with simpler eligibility rules and advanced technologies — referred to by one state official as “radical simplification”.  Most states couldn’t be farther from the ACA’s goals, having onerous cultures, manual paper-driven processes, and antiquated and disconnected systems.  The Administration has released extensive guidance and unprecedented funding for states to revamp these processes and systems, and the timetable for planning and implementation is brutally tight.

Fact sheets from HHS are here.  Tim Jost offered a nice overview at Health Affairs here.  The GHG Public Policy team is reviewing the NPRMs and will have more perspectives this week on this page.