by Jackie Selby and Jane L. Kuesel
As enacted in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, states are required to have established operational health benefit exchanges by January 1, 2014, or the federal government will implement one for them. These exchanges will allow individuals and small businesses to buy health care coverage and are expected to add approximately 30 million currently uninsured persons to the health insurance market. Most of the health plans that will be offered on such exchanges will be managed care plans with networks of participating providers. Thus, the resulting new business will be covered by hospital, physician, and other provider participation agreements with such managed care plans.