The Essential Health Benefits Coalition—which includes employer trade associations, pharmacy benefit managers and health plans—urged federal health officials to give health plans flexibility as they develop benefit packages to comply with essential health benefit rules under healthcare reform.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act mandates coverage in the individual and small-group markets across 10 categories of care and these “essential benefits” will be modeled after a benchmark health plan selected in each state.
The coalition called for “the maximum amount of flexibility” for health plans as they seek to offer benefit packages that will meet benefit thresholds set by the benchmark plan selected in each state, according to a news release.