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    Blog Posts by Shandra Benson

    • Supply always comes on the heels of demand. As the demand for efficient automated applications and web-based portals gained momentum in the US healthcare sector, many IT vendors, rose up to meet the market wide demand of healthcare software. The trend has been continuing at a steady pace in the US healthcare industry and is likely to expand further in the forthcoming years.

      Healthcare software may refer to any set of applications that has been designed to facilitate the health monitoring or healthcare distribution activities for healthcare providers, payers, carriers etc. While diagnostic and storage healthcare software such as MRI, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)/Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have been around for quite some time, it is the US healthcare insurance industry that is positioned to witness a complete overhaul as a direct effect of the Affordable Care Act.

      President Obama's healthcare reforms introduced under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 has brought

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    • Design Uncertainties Around State Health Insurance Exchanges: Implications for Payers

      By Shandra Benson | Work + Money – Mon, Aug 20, 2012 7:10 AM EDT

      Under the aegis of Affordable Care Act, states are mandated to set up health insurance exchanges - online marketplaces for buying and selling health insurance and auxiliary products. Considering the cultural and demographic differences among various US states, the federal government has extended states with an option to design their local state health insurance exchanges based on their local residents insurance needs, health profiles and local insurance market designs. This 'flexibility' for states has however increased design and administrative complexities for insurers.

      Most US states are still deliberating about whether they should set up a state exchange in the first place. While most are awaiting the Supreme Court verdict on the ACA constitutionality that can free states of their obligation to set up exchanges, other states such as Maryland, Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado are aggressively working towards setting up a functional health exchange model before the

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    • Private Health Insurance Exchanges Enjoy an Edge Over State HIX

      By Shandra Benson | Work + Money – Mon, Aug 20, 2012 7:07 AM EDT

      Private health insurance exchanges though principally similar to public health insurance exchanges, differ from public health insurance exchanges on some key characteristics. One such distinguishing factor is the implementation time. There are several private exchanges already operational in the health insurance market, with many others scheduled to launch over the next few months. Public exchanges on the other hand are not scheduled to open until January 1, 2014, by which time, the existing private exchanges would have a couple of years under their belt. Thus, by the time the public exchanges roll out, insurers and commercial payers would be able to collect two years worth of operational results and insights through private exchanges and would be able to get some clarity on the best exchange operation practices and methods.

      There is a lot of doubt and ambiguities associated with public health insurance exchange with the ACA awaiting Supreme Court ruling and most of the US

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    • Delaware Attempts to Try a New Approach with Its State Health Insurance Exchange

      By Shandra Benson | Author Blog Posts – Mon, Aug 13, 2012 3:03 AM EDT

      Delaware is one among the few US states that embraced the Affordable Care Act and began with its state health insurance exchange implementation early. The Delaware State has suggested some guidelines that it feels can be helpful for running other state health insurance exchanges across the US.
      Delaware is taking strong strides towards meeting the January 2014 deadline for setting fully functional health insurance exchanges and is drawing plans on how the state health insurance exchange would actually operate.
      As per the January statistics published in a report by the White House, Delaware has already received $4,400,096, - $1,000,000 exchange implementation grant and $3,400,096 Level 1 establishment grant - in federal grant to set up its state health insurance exchange. Establishing and running an exchange is costly business and small US states are understandably concerned about the high insurance exchange maintenance and management costs.
      Delaware proposes that either the

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