Gateways, Exchanges, and Navigators

Looking at last week’s House and Senate bills, I saw a couple things that might be interesting to the wide class of firms that provides online health benefits procurement (e.g., BenefitFocus, eHealth, etc.,.) The bills start to describe what the Gateway/Exchange contemplated by Congress (and WellPoint) looks like.

In both the House (“Exchange”) and Senate (“Gateway”) versions, the entity is set up by the government. It is supposed to play a non-exclusive role, but I think the question haunting the whole insurance industry and vendor community is the longer-term viability of other distribution channels, especially if a public option is at play.

The Senate bill is a little more descriptive than the House bill, and provides that: “The Gateway will establish tools to enable consumers to obtain coverage, establish open enrollment periods, and assist consumers in the purchase of long term services and supports”. These are clearly some of the things that need doing, but ultimately the Gateway concept is a quasi-government entity so probably will not attract much private capital.

The Senate bill also describes the role of a “Navigator”, which is in the pleasant position of receiving government contracts but ostensibly could be a private firm:

"(a) The Secretary shall award grants to establishing States to enable the Gateway or Gateways in such States to enter into agreements with private and public entities under which such entities will serve as navigators in accordance with this section.
(b) ELIGIBILITY.—(1) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to enter into an agreement under subsection (a), an entity shall demonstrate that the entity has existing relationships with, or could readily establish relationships with, employers and employees, and self-employed individuals, likely to be eligible to participate in the program under this title. …
(c) DUTIES.—An entity that serves as a navigator under an agreement under subsection (a) shall— (1) conduct public education activities to raise awareness of the program under this title (2) distribute fair and impartial information concerning enrollment in an[d] the availability of credits for qualified health plans; (3) assist with enrollment in a qualified health plan; and (4) provide information in a manner determined by the Secretary to be culturally and linguistically appropriate to the needs of the population served by the Gateway.”

I am still a bit more interested in a model that gets into the flow of cost and quality data than one that is "linguistically appropriate"… I’ll keep you posted.