CMS has awarded $8.6 million in funding to 30 states and the District of Columbia to help stabilize health insurance markets. The funding is part of $250 million earmarked for State Rate Review Grants to improve the process for how sates review proposed health insurance rates.
“These grants build on CMS’s ongoing efforts to give states the tools and flexibility they need to help people struggling to afford the year over year premium increases caused by Obamacare regulations,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, said in a statement. “We recognize that States are in the best position to assess the needs of their consumers and develop innovative measures to ensure access to affordable health coverage. These grants make yet another down payment on our work to enhance States’ ability to stabilize and improve their respective health insurance markets.”
States can use the funds to conduct economic analyses and market scans of health insurance markets to improve affordable coverage options and examine plan policies, procedures and claims related to mental health and substance use disorder treatments.
The grants awarded have a project and budget period of 24 months, and all states that applied for funding received grants.
The grants were awarded after CMS came under fire for temporarily halting about $10 billion in risk-adjustment payments to health insurance providers in July. The agency reversed its position and released the funds, which were established under the Affordable Care Act to ensure insurers didn’t cherry pick healthier enrollees.
Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."