Raise the Bar: State-Based Marketplaces Using Quality Tools to Enhance Health Equity
As part of its push to improve health equity, the federal government now requires all insurers selling Marketplace plans to take steps to reduce health disparities and track certain clinical data by race and ethnicity. The Affordable Care Act sets minimum standards for all insurance plans sold through the federal Marketplace, but State-Based Marketplaces have authority to supplement these efforts. A new blog post from the Commonwealth Fund highlights California and Washington’s efforts to customize requirements for strengthening their health equity and equity programs. These include a focus on data collection and measurement and financial penalties for insurance carriers that fail to meet benchmarks.