WASHINGTON – The Department of Health & Human Services has awarded $241 million in “Early Innovator” grants to help several states design and implement the IT infrastructure needed to launch state health insurance exchanges.

Those receiving grants are Kansas, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Wisconsin and a consortium of New England states. The grants range from $6 million to $54 million, depending on the project, and offer several solutions to providing the IT infrastructure necessary to run a state health insurance exchange. HHS announced the awards on Feb. 16.

“Early Innovator states will play a critical role in developing a consumer-friendly marketplace where insurers must compete to deliver the best deal,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “These grants ensure that consumers in every state will be able to easily navigate their way through health insurance options.”

Most states will use the funds to build out existing frameworks already in place, including those used for the administration of state Medicaid programs. Most aim to integrate with health departments and agencies to lower administrative costs while providing consumers with easy access to health insurance information.
All Early Innovator states have committed to developing technology that is reusable and transferable. Technology sharing should help other states establish their exchanges quickly. At the same time, it gives states the flexibility to develop an exchange that best meets the needs of their unique health insurance market without having to start from scratch.

“Everyone wins,” said Donald Berwick, MD, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “This grant program means that states don’t have to waste money reinventing the wheel, and consumers get the best of the best.”

The grant recipients and amounts awarded are:
·      Kansas, Kansas Insurance Department, $31,537,465;
·      Maryland, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, $6,227,454;
·      New England, University of Massachusetts Medical School, $35,591,333;
·      New York, New York Department of Health, $27,431,432;
·      Oklahoma, Oklahoma Health Care Authority, $54,582,269;
·      Oregon, Oregon Health Authority, $48,096,307; and
·      Wisconsin, Wisconsin Department of Health Services, $37,757,266.

As the states consider the technology needed to build the insurance exchanges, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is focusing on necessary legislation. The organization has adopted model language designed to provide guidance to individual states establishing health insurance exchanges.
“It is important for us to provide this model in time for 2011, as not all state legislatures are in session every year, but it is a year when all will be in session,” said Michael T. McRaith, director of the Illinois Department of Insurance. “What we do not attempt to do with the model law is reconcile the conflicting public policy decisions that individual states will have to make. We want to assure maximum state flexibility."