Health Law Advisor

EBG Introduces Interactive National Rate Review Scorecard

by Jesse M. Caplan and Lynn Shapiro Snyder

Shortly after the September 1st effective date for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Rate Review Regulations, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published an Amendment to the Final Rule that revises the definitions of “Individual Market” and “Small Group Market” to include insurance policies sold to individuals and small groups through associations, whether or not the applicable state includes association coverage in its own definitions ...

EBG Introduces Interactive National Rate Review Scorecard

by Jesse M. Caplan and Lynn Shapiro Snyder

On May 23, 2011, the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published its Final Rule implementing Section 2794 of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA).  This Section requires HHS to establish a process for the review of “unreasonable” health insurance premium rate increases in the individual and small group markets.  The Final Rule ...

For the last week or so, the health reform public policy debate has been keyed to the Senate HELP Committee’s draft and thus dominated by whether or not the “Exchange” to be employed in access reform should include a “public plan” and, if so, whether such a plan should have the power to access provider payment rates tied to Medicare and whether Medicare participating providers would be required to contract with it. With this week’s release of the Senate Finance Committee’s draft, it will be interesting to see whether payment reform can similarly capture the ...