The majority of those who enrolled in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act plans through the exchanges will be auto-enrolled in the same health plan they selected in 2014 this coming enrollment period, as well as receive the same subsidies, if applicable, the administration said Thursday.
The rule was proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“As we plan for open enrollment in year two and continue to build a
sustainable long-term system, we are committed to simplifying the
experience for consumers by allowing auto-enrollment,” HHS Secretary
Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in a news release. “We are working to
streamline the process for consumers wishing to remain in their current
plan.”
Basically, under the new guidelines, most of the law’s customers “would be able to renew subsidized health insurance coverage without filing an application and without going back to HealthCare.gov, the website that frustrated millions of consumers last fall.” New HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who issued the rules Thursday, said, “We are working to streamline the process for consumers wishing to remain in their current plan.”
The new rules mean that “people will need to do very little to remain in their health plans if their
incomes and covered family members are not changing and their plans are offered again for 2015.” However, the remaining customers “will need to reapply for one or more reasons: their incomes are rising or falling significantly, they did not give permission for their tax records to be checked automatically, or the health plans they joined this year disappear as of January.”
However, much of the coverage of the new HHS rules is intertwined with that of a study, also published Thursday, which cautions that consumers should shop around if they wish to avoid a hike in premiums. In a second article, the Washington Times reports on the new study, from the consulting firm Avalere Health, which finds “Obamacare customers who received government subsidies to reduce the cost of health coverage will face ‘substantial’ premium increases unless they switch plans in 2015.”
The new option may alleviate some of the technical difficulties that have plagued HealthCare.gov during the tumultuous first year of enrollment, as well as give the administration a head start on the increasing number of Americans getting coverage under the law.
The number of PPACA enrollments is expected to grow significantly in the next open enrollment period. Technology firm Healthcare.com estimates that 12-16 million people will enroll in plans under PPACA in 2015, up from 8 million who enrolled in 2014.
HHS noted that about 88 percent of employees receiving coverage through the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program don’t wish to change plans and are instead auto-enrolled in their current plan with updated premiums and benefits.
Consumers who are automatically re-enrolled in PPACA plans will still have the option of changing plans during open enrollment, which runs Nov. 15 through Feb. 15, according to the rule. Enrollees also can return to the system to report life changes.
Even if someone is no longer eligible for a subsidy, they will still be auto-enrolled in their current plan, just without a tax credit, HHS said. State-based exchanges may also take this approach, HHS said, or may propose an alternative.
Under the rule, “consumers in the federally-facilitated marketplace will receive notices from the Marketplace informing them how to update their information to get a tailored and updated tax credit that keeps up with any income changes,” HHS said in its press release. "Consumers will receive information from their health insurance company about the premium and the amount they are eligible to save on their monthly bill close to the beginning of the open enrollment period, when they will be able to take action should they choose to do so.”
