Implementing Health Reform: The 2015 Notice Of Benefit And Payment Parameters Proposed Rule

On November 24, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services published its 2015 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters Proposed Rule. The benefit and payment parameters rule is a regulation that HHS must publish each fall describing the payment parameters of the premium stabilization (risk adjustment, reinsurance, and risk corridor) and cost-sharing reduction programs, as well as the federal exchange user fees for the following year. The notice is also an opportunity to tweak other aspects of the ACA health insurance programs, and this Notice proposes changes in rating methods in the small business health options program (SHOP); privacy and security rules for personally identifiable information; the annual open enrollment period for 2015; the actuarial value (AV) calculator; the annual limitation on cost sharing for stand-alone dental plans; the meaningful difference standard for qualified health plans offered through the federal exchange; and patient safety standards for issuers of qualified health plans. Finally, the Notice makes a few changes in the 2014 premium stabilization program. This is in all likelihood the last major proposed rule to come out of HHS before the launch of the qualified health plan and the premium tax credit and cost-sharing reduction programs on January 1, 2014. We are likely to see more rulemaking activity from the Internal Revenue Service in 2013, but HHS has finished its regulatory work. Indeed, although the Proposed Notice does make ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Tags: All Categories Consumers Employer-Sponsored Insurance Health Reform Payment Policy States Source Type: blogs