Insurers have until Sept. 15 to decide whether to participate in Connecticut’s healthcare insurance exchange next year, the state insurance department announced Tuesday.
The exchange, Access Health CT plans to open enrollment on Nov. 1. The original due date was Sept. 1.
Insurance Commissioner Katharine L. Wade said her department will make final rate determinations before Sept. 15.
The extension of time “provides the carriers with the time they need to decide if they’ll offer plans for 2018 and allows our organization to prepare the best way possible for the upcoming open enrollment period,” said Access Health CEO Jim Wadleigh.
The uncertainty in Washington, D.C., regarding funding for cost sharing reductions (CSRs), which provide financial assistance for consumers, contributed to Wade’s decision to implement the extension, she said.
Last week, Wade had asked exchange carriers Anthem and ConnectiCare Benefits Inc. to submit a supplemental filing that contemplates the absence of CSR payments for 2018 and to apply that impact only on certain exchange plans. That deadline was Aug. 30.
