Insurers in states with state-based exchange programs may get a little time to tweak 2016 major medical prices to reflect any earth-shaking news that comes out this summer.
Samara Lorenz, director of the oversight group at the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), talks about CCIIO’s views on 2016 rate filing deadlines in a memo aimed primarily at states with state-based Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange programs.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has put the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in charge of setting up and running the PPACA programs that affect the commercial health insurance market. CCIIO is the CMS division that oversees the PPACA programs for CMS.
The 2016 PPACA open enrollment period is set to start Nov. 1 and run until Jan. 31, 2016.
CCIIO officials told insurers and state insurance regulators in April that insurers must file rates for 2016 individual and small-group coverage by May 15, and that CCIIO has to have final rate information for qualified health plans (QHPs), or exchange plans, in the Health Insurance and Oversight System (HIOS) by Aug. 25. CCIIO uses HIOS to feed QHP information into the HealthCare.gov exchange enrollment system.
See also: CCIIO posts health plan filing dates
In the new memo, Lorenz says states with state-based exchanges have asked CMS whether the deadlines apply to state-based exchanges.
The deadlines given in the earlier memo apply in all states, Lorenz writes.
But, this year, CMS will let states that have state-run exchanges and handle their own rate review process take somewhat longer to get rate filings through the final approval process.