As of today, a key milestone in health care reform is 100 days away.
While some help with insurance enrollment under the Affordable Care Act will likely be coming soon to some Augusta providers, even advocates admit that time for getting everything ready by Oct. 1 is tight. How to achieve some key pieces, such as enrolling the young and healthy, remains unclear.
The Government Accountability Office noted last week that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is behind in some areas in establishing insurance exchanges and subsidies in the 34 states that will not establish their own, which includes the entire Southeast.
Key assistance for the “navigator” program of community groups that will do outreach and education on the exchanges won’t be granted until mid-August.
“Which means then there will be about six weeks for the navigators to go through the training and do everything that they need to do to be ready on Oct. 1 to go out and talk with consumers,” said Cindy Zeldin, the executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future.
A further complication for navigators in Georgia is a state law passed this year that would require them to be licensed by the state insurance commissioner and have 35 hours of training that includes the state’s Medicaid and PeachCare programs.
via 100 days until health reform enrollment begins | The Augusta Chronicle.
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