Feds promote benefits summaries

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is trying to get the “in-person assisters” who help consumers sign up for exchange plans publicize the Summary of Benefits and Coverage program.

Consumers “have a right to receive an SBC from their insurance company or group health plan upon request at any time,” CMS says in a new SBC guide for assisters.

Drafters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act created the SBC program in an effort to help consumers and employers compare PPACA-compliant major medical plans on an apples-to-apples basis.

A plan issuer is supposed to give a snapshot of how a plan would cover an insured who had a baby or was managing Type 2 diabetes.