Insurance chief signs pact to aid open enrollment

Agreement spells out duties

During the open enrollment period for health coverage for individual consumers that starts Nov. 1, the Arkansas Insurance Department will continue to field questions from consumers, provide training for outreach workers and insurance agents, and report on enrollment totals, according to an agreement signed Thursday by Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr.

Meanwhile, the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace, a nonprofit organization created by the Arkansas Legislature, will develop training for insurance agents for the exchange for small-business employees that the marketplace is establishing, said Heather Haywood, a marketplace spokesman.

Through a contractor, Reston, Va.-based hCentive, the marketplace will also field questions from agents, business owners and consumers about the small-business exchange, which is being built by the company.

The duties that will be handled by the Insurance Department are spelled out in the agreement dated Thursday and signed by Kerr and Marketplace Executive Director Cheryl Smith Gardner.

Marketplace Board Chairman Sherill Wise was out of town and had not signed the agreement late Thursday afternoon but had agreed to its contents, Insurance Department spokesman Alice Rose said.

The agreement is part of a planned switch from insurance exchanges operated by federal government under a partnership with the state to state-based exchanges operated by the marketplace.

Enrollment is expected to start Nov. 1 in the state-based small-business exchange and in the fall of 2016 in a state-based exchange for individual consumers.

The marketplace is establishing the exchanges with money from a $99.9 million federal grant. Supporters of state-based exchanges say they could be better tailored to suit the state's needs.

Act 398, passed during this year's legislative session, prohibits the marketplace from establishing a state-based exchange until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a challenge to part of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

If the court sides with the challengers, the Legislature must approve the transition to a state-based exchange. The ruling is expected next month.

The Insurance Department's plans for transitioning to a state-based exchange include eliminating its Health Connector Division on June 30 and transferring about $19.3 million in unspent grant funds from the division to the marketplace on July 20, division spokesman Seth Blomeley said.

Funded by such grants, the division helps regulate the plans on the federally run exchanges and provides information to consumers.

Kerr has said the federal government won't allow the department to spend the grant money after June 30, but will allow the marketplace to use the money for up to one additional year to support the transition to state-based exchanges.

According to an Insurance Department report, six employees' jobs will be eliminated June 30 as part of the transition. Four employees' jobs will continue through February of 2016, with funding provided by the marketplace under the agreement.

Three other employees will move into vacant positions within the Insurance Department, which will continue its role in helping to regulate plans on the exchange, Rose said.

The employees whose jobs will be eliminated June 30 are Blomeley; Deputy Insurance Commissioner Cynthia Crone; Debbie Willhite, the division's chief operational officer; Communications Specialist Jarrod Johnson; Administrative Assistant Dawn Roby; and Resource Center Specialist Chiquita Briscoe.

The employees whose jobs will continue through February are Information Systems Specialist Marion Haase, Resource Center Manager Justin Mizell, and Training Lead Chloe Crater.

The employees who will move into other positions within the department are Attorney Specialist Zane Chrisman, Marketplace Compliance Officer Chantel Allbritton and License Specialist Thomas Herndon.

Bruce Donaldson, a liaison to insurance agents and brokers at the Health Connector Division, has been hired for a similar position with the marketplace, where he will start work on June 29, Haywood said.

Metro on 05/22/2015

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