Essential Health Benefits
On February 20, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a final rule that helps consumers shop for and compare health insurance options in the individual and small group markets by promoting consistency across plans, protecting consumers by ensuring that plans cover a core package of items that are equal in scope to benefits offered by a typical employer plan, and limiting their out of pocket expenses.
The Affordable Care Act ensures Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance. To achieve this goal, the law ensures that health plans offered in the individual and small group markets, both inside and outside of Health Insurance Marketplaces, offer a core package of items and services, known as “essential health benefits.” Under the statute, EHB 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 habilitation services and devices
- Laboratory services
- Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
- Pediatric services, including oral and vision care
The Affordable Care Act also directs that EHB be equal in scope to benefits offered by a “typical employer plan.” To meet this requirement in every state, the final rule defines EHB based on a state-specific benchmark plan. The final rule provides that all plans subject to EHB offer benefits substantially equal to the benefits offered by the benchmark plan. This approach best strikes the balance between comprehensiveness, affordability, and state flexibility.
If a benchmark plan is missing any of the 10 statutory categories of benefits, the final rule provides direction on how the state, or HHS where the default base-benchmark plan applies, will supplement the benchmark plan in that category. The final rule also includes standards to protect consumers against discrimination and ensure that benchmark plans offer a full array of EHB benefits and services.
For example, the final rule:
- Prohibits discriminatory benefit designs;
- Includes special standards and options for coverage of benefits not typically covered by individual and small group policies today, including habilitation services; and
- Includes standards for prescription drug coverage to ensure that individuals have access to needed prescription medications.
Source: http://healthreform.kff.org
