Many of the hallmarks of the Affordable Care Act, such as state-based health exchanges to purchase insurance, won’t go into effect until 2014. But in the meantime, Health and Human Services department officials are plenty busy rolling out other provisions of the law, making adjustments to some of the law’s programs, and just promoting what they’ve done so far.
Recently, HHS officials announced that they would stop granting exemptions that allow limited-benefit health plans to keep in place low annual coverage limits that are at odds with the Affordable Care Act. HHS has been granting waivers to these so-called “mini-med” plans in an effort to keep the products affordable for consumers. But no more. Starting on Sept. 23, HHS will no longer accept waiver applications or extension requests from these plans.
Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute
HHS has also been busy promoting the availability of free preventive services for Medicare beneficiaries. Starting at the beginning of this year, Medicare beneficiaries were eligible to receive recommended preventives services ranging from mammograms to smoking cessation counseling with no copays or deductibles under Medicare Part B.
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