The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and state agencies are already starting to issue regulations and guidelines for the 2015 public exchange program.
Many states have had trouble getting 2014 exchange enrollment systems to work properly. Oregon, for example, has not yet completed work on its enrollment site, and Covered California has set up the small-business coverage sales section of its site just this week.
Officials at HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have been trying to soften President Obama’s recent promises that the government would get the HealthCare.gov federal exchange enrollment site working properly by Nov. 30.
But CMS has started to seek comments on a draft version of an actuarial value calculator that health plans, employers and actuaries could use in PPACA-related calculations in 2015.
Meanwhile, states are developing strategies for making state-based exchanges “self-sustaining.”