CMS Schedules CO-OP Meeting

The Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) Advisory Board will meet April 15 to vote on recommendations for a CO-OP grant and loan award strategy.

Congress created the CO-OP program and the CO-OP advisory board when it enacted Section 1322 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The program is supposed to help create a nonprofit, member-owned alternative to commercial health plans.

The advisory board is coming up with ideas about how the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), the agency at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that is in charge of the CO-OPs, should go about allocating CO-OP startup funds.