HHS Calls for Comments on Essential Health Benefits Package under the Affordable Care Act

In December, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a bulletin outlining proposed policies that will give states more flexibility and freedom to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under the proposed policies, states will have the ability to individually determine the list of services that make up the Essential Health Benefits Package under the ACA. These will be used to determine insurance coverage in future state insurance plans. HHS is currently accepting comments from the public on the plan until Tuesday, January 31, 2012, at EssentialHealthBenefits@cms.hhs.gov. 
From the Bulletin:

Essential Health Benefits
The Affordable Care Act ensures Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance. To achieve this goal, the law ensures health plans offered in the individual and small group markets, both inside and outside of the Affordable Insurance Exchanges (Exchanges), offer a comprehensive package of items and services, known as “essential health benefits.” Essential health benefits must include items and services within at least the following 10 categories:

• Ambulatory patient services
• Emergency services
• Hospitalization
• Maternity and newborn care
• Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment
• Prescription drugs
• Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
• Laboratory services
• Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management, and
• Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

HHS will accept comments until Tuesday, January 31, 2012, so if you have an opinion, let them know by sending an email to EssentialHealthBenefits@cms.hhs.gov.
 

Liz Wu is a Digital Accounts Manager at Prichard Communications, where she oversees digital outreach for Reclaiming Futures and edits Reclaiming Futures Every Day. Before joining the Prichard team, Liz established the West Coast communications presence for the New America Foundation, where she managed all media relations, event planning and social media outreach for their 6 domestic policy programs. Liz received a B.A. in both Peace and Conflict Studies and German from the University of California at Berkeley. She tweets from @LizSF.
 
 
 
 *Photo at top by Flickr user premasagar.