New health care reforms are at the forefront of the proposed rule for 2018 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which said in a release it believes would work to stabilize the health insurance markets to best serve and protect patients.
“Americans participating in the individual health insurance markets deserve as many health insurance options as possible,” actingCMS Administrator Patrick Conway said in the release. “This proposal will take steps to stabilize the marketplace, provide more flexibility to states and insurers, and give patients access to more coverage options. They will help protect Americans enrolled in the individual and small group health insurance markets while future reforms are being debated.”
In the current draft of the proposed rule, CMS wants to enact a variety of policy changes including expanding pre-enrollment eligibility verification for new enrollees who use the HealthCare.gov website so that people would have the pre-enrollment time but would need to have all proper documentation available in order to enroll and encouraging patients to keep up on their coverage by allowing them collect for periods of unpaid coverage before enrolling in the next year’s plan. The proposed rule also would allow issuers more opportunity to determine their own level of coverage by making changes to the de minimis range.
CMS said wants, where possible, for states to help determine issuer network adequacy and to make sure residents get the best possible coverage.
CMS also said it will revise and release a proposed timeline for Qualified Health Plan Certification for 2018, allowing issuers more time to implement proposed changes.
Finally, the open enrollment period would be shortened to be from Nov. 1, 2017 – Dec. 15, 2017, which CMS believes would lower costs for the American people.
