The exchange builders in states with active exchange design programs still seem to be deciding how to work with health insurance agents and brokers.
Mark Hall and Katherine Swartz touch on producer relationship considerations in a paper on exchange construction efforts in California, Colorado and Maryland.
The Commonwealth Fund, New York, a think tank that generally supports the goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA), has posted the exchange builder paper on its website.
Hall is a law professor at Wake Forest University, and Swartz is a public health economist at Harvard University.
PPACA opponents continue to fight implementation of the law in Congress, in the courts and elsewhere. The law calls for states to set up exchanges, or Web-based health insurance marketplaces, for individuals and small groups by 2014.
Hall and Swartz say they look at California, Colorado and Maryland in their article because those were some of the first states to enact legislation establishing PPACA-based exchanges.
The researchers review topics such as the makeup of exchange boards, the relationship between exchange boards and the state legislature, how exchanges are interacting with existing insurance markets, and the involvement of stakeholders.
The researchers did not notice enough news of interest about the Maryland exchange program’s relationship with brokers and agents to mention the topic.
The researchers say the California and Colorado exchange builders are trying to reassure producers — but not saying whether or how their states’ exchanges might pay producers.