Thousands of polls have been performed since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law, gauging consumers' opinions about the legislation and whether they think it's a good thing. Soon, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will conduct its own analysis in order to determine just how well exchanges are performing.
Insurance news source BenefitsPro reported that the reviews will be performed among federally facilitated exchanges rather than those that are state-based, and will look to see if they're in compliance. The reviews won't take place, however, until 2015 at the earliest.
"CMS intends to coordinate with the state regulatory entities, where appropriate, in conducting the compliance reviews," the CMS letter stated, which was sent to health marketplaces run by the federal government, according to BenefitsPro.
Meanwhile, among commercial health plans, global marketing services firm J.D. Power and Associates recently performed a survey of its own, looking to see how satisfied people were with their health plans. Among individual states, plan members in Michigan and California were the most satisfied, on average, while the lowest sentiment was in the six New England states.
Approximately 136 health plans in 18 regions throughout the U.S. were used, with respondents answering questions to issues such as coverage and employee benefits, information communication, claims processing and cost, according to J.D. Power.
Rick Johnson, senior director of the healthcare practice at J.D. Power, indicated that people not being able to get in touch with their insurer may have weakened overall satisfaction.
"On average, members wait eight days for communication from their provider after a pre-approval request has been submitted," said Johnson. "Health plans must look for ways to promptly communicate both pre-approvals and cost in order to minimize member anxiety and mitigate concerns about access to care, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction."
