by Lynn Shapiro Snyder and Philo D. Hall
On March 12, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) released its final rule (“Final Rule”) implementing the new Affordable Health Insurance Exchanges (“Exchanges”) authorized under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. These Exchanges are intended to establish and operate a “one-stop marketplace” in each state for individuals and small employers to obtain health insurance. While states, health issuers, and related vendors pour over all the details of the Final Rule, we thought it would be helpful to highlight 10 issues related to these Exchanges that would be of particular interest to health care providers. A significant portion of providers’ patient populations may be obtaining their health benefits coverage through one of these Exchanges.