The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may need to get approval from Congress to operate one of the three major new federal health insurance risk-management programs in fiscal year 2015.
Susan Poling, general counsel at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), comes to that conclusion in a letter to Sen. Jeff Sessions R-Ala., and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires HHS run a temporary “risk corridors” program. The program is supposed to use cash from health insurers with good underwriting results to help PPACA exchange plan issuers with poor underwriting results.