DC health care exchange to be tested by feds
DCs health care exchange, pursuant to national health care reform, is set to open October 1, 2013. It will have its technology tested in the next two months by the U.S. Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight to ensure that the DC exchanges technology can communicate well with the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to check criteria such as insurance eligibility and citizenship.
If the oversight agency finds problems which would result in service delivery failures to citizen users, the DC exchange would be taken over by the feds. The DC exchange aims to move quickly some say too quickly to embrace national health care reform. The exchange is to be run by an executive board that has voted to require all employers with 50 or fewer workers to buy insurance through the exchange, rather than on the open market. The requirement would be phased in over two years but remains controversial.
The DC exchanges board has also voted to allow employers to offer several plans from different insurers at different prices.
Download Bulletin PDF