Government hopes to see action on state insurance exchanges soon despite ambiguous guidelines

The federal government is hoping that states make moves on insurance exchanges soon. Several guidelines have been released by the government to lay the framework for how states should go about building and operating the exchanges, but few have been quick to take up action. Federal law requires that states must have a working exchange program established by 2014 or the control of this program will default to the federal government. The director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,…

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Health insurance exchanges may be tilted in favor of insurance companies, thanks to new rules provided by the HHS

On Monday, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, unveiled a sleuth of federal rules that are to be used in governing health insurance exchanges. The rules, which will be in effect regardless of whether states choose to set up and exchanges themselves or pass that burden to the federal government, have a particular leaning in favor of insurers. This has drawn sharp criticism from legislators and the public, as the exchange programs have always been lauded as being consumer friendly. Now, there are concerns that…

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