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The OPEN MINDS Weekly News Wire

Feds To Allow States To Decide on Essential Health Benefits

Hot 'Off The Wire' News for the Week of December 26, 2011

Rather than specifically defining the details of what will be included in an “essential health benefits” package, the Obama administration has opted to let states decide how to benchmark their plans. On December 16, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that states would be granted the flexibility to define their essential benefits packages based on which benchmark plan best meets the needs of their state. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) requires that health plans offer a minimum set of “essential health benefits” for policies sold through state health insurance exchanges, which go live in 2014... Full Article (all members)



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