HHS extends filing deadline for state insurance exchanges

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius recently announced she has extended the deadline for states to submit their plans for setting up online markets where their state’s residents can purchase subsidized private health insurance.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates that states have health insurance exchanges established by October 2013. Most Americans are required to have health insurance policies by January 2014. If individual states do not establish HIEs, the federal government will run the exchange in that state.

To date, 17 states that want to run their exchanges have received “conditional approval.” Other states have until February 15 to file applications to run their health insurance exchanges “in partnership with the federal government,” said Sebelius in a New York Times article.

At this time, more than half of the states have opted to have the federal government be responsible for running exchanges.

Sandra Hoban

Sandra Hoban was on I Advance Senior Care / Long-Term Living’s editorial staff for 17 years. She is one of the country’s longest-serving senior care journalists. Before joining Long-Term Living, she was a member of the promotions department at Advanstar Communications. In addition to her editorial experience, Sandi has served past roles in print and broadcast advertising as a traffic and talent coordinator.