D.C. exchange panel heads to NAHU offices

An advisory panel at the new District of Columbia Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is showing that it can maintain good relations with commercial health insurance producer trade groups.

The D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority Producers Advisory Committee is starting a call-in meeting at 10 a.m. EDT Tuesday in the Washington offices of the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU).

The committee may ask producers about what types of support they think an exchange should provide for producers during the first year that an exchange is in business.

The committee also could ask whether they think having exchange producers go through an annual training and re-certification process makes sense.

Other topics may include requirements for non-resident producers who want to participate in the D.C. exchange and strategies to keep producers from steering consumers toward or away from certain health insurance plans.

But the agenda covers more than one committee meeting, according to the committee.