BenefitMall Promotes Key Issues at NAIC Meeting

PPACA Leads Discussion Topics

Today is the final day of NAIC’s Spring National Meeting in Austin, TX, and BenefitMall has actively participated in a number of discussions throughout the four day meeting of high interest to the broker community.  In particular, several workgroups were established at the request of Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius, who sought guidance from NAIC on a host of issues, including controversial elements of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) reform. Clearly, these meetings resulted in a lively discussion about several PPACA issues of profound importance to our industry. I am pleased BenefitMall was given this opportunity to play an active role in these hard-hitting discussions with the NAIC and HHS.    

Specific topics included the scope and nature of state-run healthcare exchanges, the relationship between Brokers and these state health insurance exchanges, Broker compensation issues, and the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) formula. BenefitMall responded to a request from NAIC for input on several of these issues. These responses included recommendations regarding:

• Financing of state healthcare exchanges [NAIC letter];
• The need for navigators to be subject to the same training and licensure requirements as brokers [NAIC letter];
• The negative impact the current formula for MLR computation will have on the broker community and the health insurance marketplace [NAIC letter]; and
• The need to preserve the private exchange market alongside the public exchanges [BenefitMall Issue Brief].   

Each BenefitMall response is attached to this blog (see links above). Any feedback on BenefitMall’s policy positions is appreciated. BenefitMall will continue to provide both verbal and written input to NAIC as it continues to promote reasonable solutions that will function effectively in the marketplace.

As NAIC moves forward on crucial issues that impact the success of the broker community, BenefitMall pledges to ensure Brokers play a central role in the health insurance industry.  Brokers contribute more to the industry than simply healthcare sales. Unless brokers are adequately compensated for their contributions, the health insurance exchange reform experiment will fail.