The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today issued final regulations and sample templates for health insurers to follow in providing the Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010. The SBCs will become available to consumers of private insurance no later than Sept. 23, 2012.
“All consumers, for the first time, will really be able to clearly comprehend the sometimes confusing language insurance plans often use in marketing,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “This will give them a new edge in deciding which plan will best suit their needs and those of their families or employees.”
Under the rule announced today, health insurers must provide consumers with clear, consistent and comparable summary information about their health plan benefits and coverage. The new explanations, which will be available beginning, or soon after, Sept. 23, 2012 will be a critical resource for the roughly 150 million Americans with private health insurance today.
Specifically, these rules will ensure consumers have access to two key documents that will help them understand and evaluate their health insurance choices:
- A short, easy-to-understand Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC); and
- A uniform glossary of terms commonly used in health insurance coverage, such as “deductible” and “co-payment.”
All health plans and insurers will provide an SBC to shoppers and enrollees at important points in the enrollment process, such as upon application and at renewal.