With the second open enrollment period rapidly approaching, assessing and monitoring the effectiveness of the ACA particularly with regard to boosting enrollment and increasing access to care continues to be a primary focus for states. To that end, the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), with support from the State Health Reform Assistance Network, has recently developed two tools to inform future reporting and cross-state comparisons of ACA implementation, as well as to assess the participation in and experience with the new health insurance marketplaces.
Terms and Definitions Used by States Reporting on Affordable Care Act (ACA) Enrollment
During the initial open enrollment period under the ACA, the federal government and states operating state-based exchanges conducted various types of reporting on key indicators of interest to policymakers and the public. There was variation in the definitions of key terms employed by different states varied across those states with the likelihood that differences will continue into the future. As the second open enrollment period nears, several states have expressed interest in better understanding how their counterparts are defining and using key terms in public reporting. This resource, developed by SHADAC and the State Health Exchange Leadership Network, represents a compendium of the terms and definitions most commonly used during the first open enrollment period, and is intended for use by states both for planning future reporting and for facilitating cross-state understanding and comparison.
Marketplace Enrollee Survey Item MatrixAs those interested in conducting surveys to measure the public’s participation and experience in health insurance marketplaces under the ACA continue to investigate the most effective ways of doing so, access to questions utilized in previously conducted surveys will be very useful. The Marketplace Enrollee Survey Item Matrix (MESIM) was developed by SHADAC in order to gather these questions in one convenient document. The MESIM is an Excel file with sort and filter functions that allow users to browse or search for pre-existing survey questions related to marketplace use and enrollment. The 246 questions included in the document are drawn from various state, federal, and private surveys, and are organized by domain. The domains include access and provider supply, application pathway, barriers to care, coverage type, health coverage literacy, motivation to enroll, perceptions of quality/satisfaction, reasons for transitions/motivation to enroll, and reasons for uninsurance/intent to enroll among the uninsured.
