HHS picks Ohio to pilot narrow network tool on HealthCare.gov

Ohio consumers picking ACA marketplace plans will be among the few in the country to use a new tool to determine the breadth of a plan’s provider network (Source: “How Narrow Is It? Gov’t Begins Test Of Comparison Tool For Health Plan Networks,” Kaiser Health News, Oct. 14, 2016).

Originally slated to be available to consumers in all 35 states that use the federally facilitated marketplace, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials have announced that consumers in just four states — Maine, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas  — will have access to the long-promised tool on HealthCare.gov.

Consumers can already check whether specific doctors or hospitals are included in a marketplace plan’s provider network on HealthCare.gov. But there’s currently no way to easily measure the breadth of a plan’s provider network. This can be an important factor for some consumers, especially given the growing number of plans with no out-of-network benefits.

The information will be available sometime during the open-enrollment period for 2017 coverage that runs from Nov. 1 until Jan. 31, 2017.