As October 1 approaches, states and the federal government are thinking about how to measure progress related to marketplace (exchange) enrollment. On September 10, the National Governors Association(NGA), in coordination with the State Health Reform Assistance Network (State Network), hosted a webinar entitled Strategies for Developing Monitoring and Evaluation Plans for Health Insurance Marketplaces. Panelists for the webinar included:
- The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) who offered an overview of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reporting requirements.
- State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) who outlined a framework for developing monitoring and evaluation plans for insurance marketplaces starting with defining the scope, choosing measures, selecting appropriate data, establishing benchmarks and goals, and engaging stakeholders.
- Representatives from Oregon’s and West Virginia’s marketplaces who provided an update about their evaluation plans, including details about how they developed them and intend to implement them, as well as lessons learned as considerations for other states.
- Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who shared their Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS).
Following the webinar, CCIIO took several additional steps to advance their data collection efforts:
- They released a Federal Registrar notice on September 16 soliciting feedback about their data collection tools for marketplace outcomes and operational metrics due September 23.
- They released an updated version of their proposed weekly and quarterly metrics.
- They announced that, starting in October, they will collect and aggregate the weekly data received by states into monthly reports that will be publicly reported two weeks after the end of each month.
In addition, resources related to monitoring and evaluation were also developed for a meeting in May co-hosted by the State Network and SHADAC that brought together state and federal officials as well as technical experts to discuss the varying data needs and reporting requirements related to state-based marketplaces. The agenda, select presentations, and resources from that meeting can be found
here.
