The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted the paperwork review application for a new exchange plan public reporting program.
CMS, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), wants to start using the program to beef up the information that the HealthCare.gov system displays for the 2016 plan year.
Section 1311(e)(3) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) requires that the public exchange system provide detailed information about health plans and health insurers.
Open enrollment for the 2016 plan year is set to start Nov. 1, 2015 and last until Jan. 31, 2016.
CMS says, in a statement explaining the “transparency” reporting program, that it will phase in the new requirements to give health insurers time to update information technology systems and begin collecting the required data.
Eventually, similar transparency reporting requirements will apply to state-run exchanges, and a separate set of transparency requirements will apply to off-exchange medical insurance and self-insured group health plans, CMS says.