The application for interested organizations seeking to serve as federal Navigators was due last Friday (June 7) with the anticipated award announcement to be handed down in early July. HHS has made $54 million available for the Navigator program and received over 830 optional letters of intent from organizations that may or may not have formally submitted an application for the navigator grant. In the mean ...

HHS recently finalized regulations governing the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) - the small group market on the exchange - solidifying the proposed delay of the employee-directed choice option on the SHOP in states like Illinois that will rely on a partnership or full federally-facilitated exchange until at least 2015. Employers with fewer than 50 employees are eligible to purchase group cover ...

The Senate Insurance Committee approved a bill that would allow the state to establish its own health insurance exchange, as authorized by the Affordable Care Act, in 2015.  HB 3227 (Koehler), as amended, which passed the committee by a vote of 8-5, represents the first time the General Assembly has taken any substantive action on any exchange-related legislation since the Senate sent the governor the state ...

The American workforce is growing heavier, softer and more sluggish than at any time in history. The U.S. ingloriously leads the world in the obesity stakes and epidemic levels of chronic and degenerative health conditions which are threatening the nation’s capacity to field a globally competitive workforce. American employers have risen to their nation’s health challenge. Driven to divert the double threat ...

HHS released new regulations published in the Federal Register today that will change some of the dynamics of the ACA and the new health insurance exchanges in 2014, including proposing a delay in the option for employers to select a coverage tier from which employees could select a plan best-suited to their needs in the SHOP exchange until at least 2015. The proposed delay of the so-called "employee choice ...

This week marks the first time the House and Senate will return together since the week of the Governor's State of the State Address on February 6 with the House returning tomorrow and the Senate on Wednesday. Tomorrow also marks the House's bill introduction deadline (the Senate deadline for bill introductions was February 15). (Next week's update will provide a more detailed breakdown of state budget issu ...

The Healthcare Council kicked off its 2013 quarterly meeting schedule on Friday where members gathered to hear from a panel of speakers on the challenges and opportunities of building new avenues to coverage in 2014 (click here for the meeting handout framing the discussion). The meeting, hosted by MCHC, also featured Congressman Peter Roskam (IL- 6th District), the Chief Deputy Whip for the U.S. House of R ...

llinois submitted its blueprint application for the state-federal partnership application on November 16, 2012, but is still awaiting final approval from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The state has applied to maintain control over the plan management and in-person consumer assistance functions; the two functions HHS allowed under the partnership model. The state's blueprint applica ...