Health plans must provide consumer-friendly health plan summaries by this fall

Moving to implement one of the new consumer protections in the health law, the Obama administration issued regulations Thursday requiring insurers to describe costs and benefits in clear, standardized language.

Los Angeles Times: New Rules For Health Plans Require Clear Summaries Of Benefits
Starting this fall, insurers and employers that offer health coverage will have to provide a six-page form that summarizes basic plan information, such as deductibles and co-pays, as well as costs for using in-network and out-of-network medical services (Levey, 2/10).

The Wall Street Journal: New Consumer Insurance Forms To Start In September
The Obama administration released finalized new rules for how health insurers describe what their plans cover Thursday, and told insurers that they have until September to prepare the documents for the new open enrollment season. ... The requirement, part of the health care overhaul law, is popular with consumers who hope they will be able to cut through pages of complicated small print and understand their coverage. But employers and insurers say that changing the way they explain insurance could be expensive and lead to more confusion (Radnofsky, 2/9).

Kaiser Health News: HHS Unveils Final Design For Insurance Labels 
The Obama administration Thursday unveiled final regulations for new health insurance summaries that the federal health law requires plans to give to consumers to help them make informed coverage choices (Jaffe, 2/9).

Associated Press: Feds Require Consumer-Friendly Health Plan Brief
Don't have the slightest clue what your health insurance covers? The Obama administration says that's going to change. Officials announced Thursday that starting later this year private health plans will have to provide consumers with a user-friendly summary of what's covered, along with key cost details such as copays and deductibles. Just six pages long. No fine print. And because the summaries will use a single standard format, it will allow "apples to apples" comparisons among health plans that aren't possible now. That will help working spouses trying to pick between employer plans, as well as people who buy coverage directly from an insurance company (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/9).

Detroit Free Press: New Rules Call For Simpler-To-Understand Group Health Insurance Benefits, Costs
Starting Sept. 23, group health insurance policies in America must provide consumers and employers with a simple, easy-to-understand summary of benefits and costs. The new rules, announced Thursday, aim to eliminate confusing and technical language in policies "the size of a small phone book," said Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, in announcing the changes Thursday. She said insurers "can't bury in fine print" any substandard coverage. The changes will help employers and consumers make apples-to-apples comparisons of their health plan, she said (Anstett, 2/9).