Health and Human Services (HHS) awards state exchange grants to five states, District of Columbia
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the distribution of an additional $224 million in establishment grants to five states and the District of Columbia to create health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.
The six grant recipients are:
- Arkansas: Receives $18.6 million to partner with HHS on a federally run exchange;
- Colorado: Receives $43.5 million "to meet deadlines for [plan] certification, testing and deployment of systems, and operations";
- District of Columbia: Receives $72.9 million to hire staff and consultants to manage the creation of its exchange and its first year of operations;
- Kentucky: Receives $4.4 million to develop a consumer assistance program;
- Massachusetts: Receive $41.7 million to update its existing exchange so it is compatible with ACA; and
- Minnesota: Receives $42.5 million to develop broker and consumer assistance services, test measures to assess health plan cost and quality and assess the security of IT systems.
However, 30 GOP-led states have said that they might decline setting up their own insurance exchange. The deadline for states to submit their exchange plans is November 16.