Officials at the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) are trying to flesh out the details of their consumer help process.
One transaction that’s now, inevitably, come up: Questions about what to do when consumers who have enrolled in quality health plans (QHPs) through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) public exchange system die.
CCIIO — an arm of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which is, in turn, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — has posted a batch of guidance for health insurers on what families or others should do when HHS exchange QHP coverage terminates because the life of the coverage holder terminates.
Officials note that a regulation requires HHS exchange QHP coverage to end on the enrollee’s date of death. Once concern is that any household members who get their coverage through an “initial application filer” who has died will have to find new coverage.
So, what should an insurer, agent or broker do when they hear about enrollees who have died?
Here are three do’s and don’ts from the CCIIO guidance.