Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Introduction to PPACA Co-Ops

Introduction to PPACA Co-Ops

Good morning.  I will discuss interviews again in my next post.  For now, I wanted to touch on the PPACA Co-Ops.  This is new to me.  I just came across an article referencing the Co-Ops that will be created by the Patient Protection Affordability and Care Act (PPACA).  I had not seen discussion of this yet, so I looked into it further.  There are links at the bottom to some of the articles I reviewed.  Here is what I found. 


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Section 1322 of the PPACA says:
SEC. 1322. FEDERAL PROGRAM TO ASSIST ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF NONPROFIT, MEMBER-RUN HEALTH INSURANCE ISSUERS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish a program to carry out the purposes of this section to be known as the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO–OP) program.
(2) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of the CO–OP program to foster the creation of qualified nonprofit health insurance issuers to offer qualified health plans in the individual and small group markets in the States in which the issuers are licensed to offer such plans.
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These Co-Ops should act similar to Credit Unions.  They will be non-profit organizations, in that any profits will need to be reinvested.  This should help lower costs and allow them to offer better services.  The idea behind these Co-Ops is that, they should increase competition on the healthcare exchanges, and since they will be a non-profit, in theory, there may be more incentives to focus on the patients.  The Co-Ops should be operational by 01/01/2014.  There is $3.8 billion that has been granted and loaned to start-ups creating these Co-Ops. 

This is really interesting stuff.  These regulations will affect HR professionals, business professional, and all Americans in a variety of ways.  I will have come back to discuss these Co-Ops more later.

And remember all of you Human Resources professionals:  Be Human... Be a Resource...  Be a Resource for Humans.

Links:
http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2012/12/14/ppaca-plan-group-names-first-executive-director
http://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/blog/detail/can-co-ops-answer-the-cry-of-consumers
https://sites.google.com/site/healthreformnavigator/ppaca-sec-1322
http://www.forc.org/public/articles/463.pdf







 Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this post are by the author Trevor Stasik, and do not necessarily reflect the views of any employer or any other organization. Please note, this information is based on my understanding and is only to be used for informational and educational purposes.  Do not take what I am writing as advice.  Seek your own legal counsel and/or see a tax accountant before making business or personal decisions.  The author of this post makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.


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