The Year in Review: State Progress on Exchanges

The year has flown by for state officials planning and developing health insurance exchanges. It’s also been an active year for policy analysts, researchers, and consultants supporting state efforts. At State Refor(u)m, we’ve compiled some of the most popular, helpful, and possibly overlooked resources on the site to help you find what you need. Since State Refor(u)m contains so many exchange-related materials—301 and counting—including everything from state legislation and grant proposals, to job descriptions and RFPs—this is actually a compilation of compilations.
Establishing legal authority for the exchange – Want to know how states established exchanges through state legislation and executive orders? Or how they set up study commissions to determine whether to set up an exchange? You can find the legislation or executive orders on the site, or use the State Refor(u)m legislative analysis chart to compare these state documents across 17 domains. Beyond the state legislation and executive orders, there are several materials from national organizations, think tanks, and others which may prove useful: NASI’s exchange toolkit, Small Business Majority model bill, and NAIC model legislation.
Exchange establishment grants – Need to see what other states are planning with their establishment grants? Start by using the State Refor(u)m establishment grant synthesis chart, which summarizes these grants over the 11 milestone areas, then delve into the details in thegrant narratives (and, in some cases, budgets) for 19 states. Our collection is growing each day.
Early innovator grants – Remember the early innovator grants? HHS awarded seven grants to states (and a state consortium) to develop models for exchange eligibility and enrollment IT systems. Although only five of them are proceeding in their efforts, it’s not too late to peruse the four grant proposals we have on the site (Maryland, Oregon, Wisconsin, and New England) and determine how your state might plan to use these models in the future.
RFPs, RFIs, and more – Drafting procurement language can be a chore, right? Don’t know where to start? State Refor(u)m to the rescue! West Virginia has tackled contract language for an education and outreach plan and Arizona has posted an RFI for a seamless eligibility IT system. State Refor(u)m has a dozen state exchange-related RFPs and RFIs to help you.
Job descriptions – Is your state trying to write job descriptions for exchange staff positions? You can find job position descriptions for exchange executive director/CEO from Colorado,Connecticut, and California, as well as a general counsel position from California.
Relationship with health plans – Is your state considering an active purchaser model, “any willing plan” or somewhere in between? We’ve got a paper by national experts on active purchasing, lessons from Massachusetts and Utah including a few on this topic, and policy papers from Rhode Island on active purchasing vs. plan standardization.
Medicaid and the exchange – How will your state’s exchange and Medicaid agency work together? Several national experts have written reports on coordination between Medicaid and the exchange, and this blog has examined early coordination and planning efforts in the Indiana, Rhode Island, and Washington establishment grants.
Basic Health Program – Is your state considering the Basic Health Program option? Not sure of the benefits, or tradeoffs, of establishing this type of program? We’ve got lots of materials from states and national organizations and researchers to help you.
Navigators – Establishing a Navigator program will be a big “to do” item for many states in 2012. Navigators will educate and help to enroll people into exchange health plans. State Refor(u)m has research from Maryland, lessons from consumer assistance programs (CAPs), apaper from the New York State Health Foundation on the roles of Navigator and CAPs, and other resources to help you “navigate” this implementation item.
Marketing and outreach – Looking ahead to 2013? That means marketing and consumer outreach time! Take a look at some lessons from Massachusetts, experience from Alabama’s CHIP program, and research and experience from Maryland.
What kind of exchange resources are you looking for at State Refor(u)m? Wish we had more of something? Need help finding materials? Found something particularly useful? Tell us in the comments below!