Exchange grants awarded

[Greenbeard]

Grants to launch the process of designing state health insurance exchanges were awarded to 48 states and D.C. today. The only states not receiving grants were Minnesota, where Tim Pawlenty forbid his departments for applying, and Alaska, which apparently declined to apply in protest of the ACA's individual mandate. The grants' purpose:

These grants of up to $1 million each will give states the resources they need to conduct the research and planning needed to build a better health insurance marketplace and determine how their exchanges will be operated and governed, including:

• Assessing current information technology (IT) systems and infrastructure and determining new requirements.
• Developing partnerships with community organizations to gain public input into the exchange planning process.
• Planning for consumer call centers to answer questions from their residents.
• Determining the statutory rules needed to build the exchanges.
• Hiring key staff and determining ongoing staffing needs.
• Planning the coordination of eligibility and enrollment systems across Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the exchanges.
• Developing performance metrics, milestones and ongoing evaluation.

Short summaries of what each state is planning to use its grant for can be found here.

 

[RDD_1210]

Pawlenty is a smart guy too. I guess he is just sticking to his principles on this one.