Open enrollment for state exchanges, a key component of the Affordable Care Act, begins today. To coincide with this important milestone in health care reform, the AASM has assembled a series of online resources to help members navigate the state exchange system and other key provisions in the ACA.
State exchanges are expected to help provide coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. These exchanges are essentially state-run marketplaces for insurance plans, in which consumers can shop for plans and compare pricing, coverage and quality. Enrollees for these plans will be pooled together similar to an employer group in the traditional insurance model. The large pool of enrollees will enable insurers to spread risk and administrative costs and therefore offer plans at a lower rate.
Sleep physicians must quickly become familiar with this new insurance model, which will ultimately impact the types of care to which patients will have access. In addition to our efforts to educate members about state exchanges and the ACA as a whole, the AASM is reaching out to lawmakers and insurers on behalf of all sleep medicine physicians. Our advocacy efforts are to ensure that sleep services are covered in each state exchange.
Members are invited to learn all about the state exchanges, the ACA and the AASM’s advocacy efforts in the new Affordable Care Act Resources section of our website. This also includes a series of helpful infographics on the changes, and exchange information for each individual state. We encourage you to spend some time with these resources.
