Brad Wright hosted this week’s Health Wonk Review over at Health Policy Analysis – be sure to check it out. Two of my favorites this time around are from Health Affairs and Healthcare Lighthouse.
At Health Affairs, John Kingsdale and Julie Lerche have an outstanding piece on some upheaval that could cause headaches for consumers heading into the 2015 open enrollment period and the tax filing season that begins in January. They address two major issues: The first is the fact that benchmark plans are going to change in most markets in 2015, which means that enrollees who are receiving subsidies will probably want to re-evaluate their health insurance options rather than simply auto-renewing their coverage. And the second is the massive undertaking of reconciling premium tax credits when consumers file their taxes, and the concern that it may not be possible to get correct 1095-As to all consumers by the end of January. Delaying the refund that most low to moderate income families receive could be a major blow to their finances. Kingsdale and Lerche provide several suggestions to mitigate problems and smooth out both of these hurdles as much as possible, and I highly recommend their article. Especially if you’re a broker or navigator, you need to be aware of these issues in order to provide the best assistance possible.
Billy Wynne, writing at Healthcare Lighthouse, has posted a dizzying amount of ACA implementation data all in one post. I’ve only read halfway through it so far, and despite the fact that I try very hard to keep up with new Federal Register publications and proposed and final rules from the IRS and HHS, I’ve learned several new things from Billy’s article. Don’t miss this one!
This was an excellent – and very informative – Health Wonk Review. I promise you’ll be smarter after you browse around it, so add it to your weekend reading list!
